Wimbledon 2023 mixed doubles: Rohan Bopanna-Gabriela Dabrowski make early exit

India’s Rohan Bopanna and Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski lost their opening match in the mixed doubles event at the Wimbledon 2023 tennis tournament on Sunday.

The sixth-seeded Indo-Canadian tennis pair, who won the French Open mixed doubles title in 2017, lost 6-7(5-7), 6-3, 6-4 to the unseeded duo of Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Latisha Chan of Chinese Taipei. Dodig and Chan were Wimbledon mixed doubles champions in 2019.

The mixed doubles match at the grass court Grand Slam, which started on Saturday but was suspended until Sunday due to rain, lasted two hours and six minutes.

Later in the day, Indian tennis players Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni too went down in their opening round match in the men’s doubles event.

Bhambri-Myneni, who made a last-minute entry into Wimbledon as alternates, lost 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain and Adrian Mannarino of France in just over two hours.

On Saturday, another Indian pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and N. Sriram Balaji lost their men’s doubles opener 7-6(7-5), 6-4 to second seeds Austin Krajicek of the USA and Ivan Dodig.

Nedunchezhiyan-Balaji, who also made a last-minute entry into the main draw as alternates, went down in an hour and 35 minutes in the rain-interrupted match.

The 43-year-old Rohan Bopanna is now India’s only hope left at Wimbledon. Bopanna and Australia’s Matthew Ebden, the sixth seeds, will play the unseeded British pair of Jacob Fearnley and Johannus Monday next in the second round on Monday.

There are no Indian players in the singles category at Wimbledon this year. Ankita Raina was the sole Indian in the singles qualifiers, where she was ousted in the opening round.