Rohan Bopanna (left) of India and Matthew Ebden of Australia. File
| Photo Credit: Getty Images
India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden moved into the second round of the Wimbledon men’s doubles event with a smooth win over Robin Haas and Sander Arends in London.
Bopanna and Ebden sailed past their Dutch opponents 7-5, 6-4 in an hour and 11 minutes in a rain-interrupted match on July 3.
The second seeds, who are the current Australian Open champions, will face Germany’s Hendrik Jebens and Constantin Frantzen in the second round.
The Indo-Australian pair had reached the semifinals of the season’s third Grand Slam last year.
Earlier on Wednesday, India’s Sumit Nagal and his Serbian partner Dusan Lajovic were ousted in the first round by Spaniards Pedro Martinez and Jaume Munar.
Martinez and Munar won 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and seven minutes.
India will have further representation in men’s doubles first round through N Sriram Balaji and Yuki Bhambri later on July 4.
Balaji will partner Britain’s Luke Johnson and will face fourth seeds Mate Pavic of Serbia and Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador.
On the other hand, Bhambri and France’s Albano Olivetti will take on the Kazakh duo of Alexander Bublik and Alexander Shevchenko.