Indian tennis veteran Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden progressed to the second round of the men’s doubles competition at Wimbledon 2024 on Wednesday.

Bopanna-Ebden, seeded second, beat Robin Haase and Sander Arends of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-4 at the All England Club in London. The rain-interrupted first-round encounter lasted one hour and 11 minutes.

The Indo-Australian pair, who are the reigning Australian Open champions, will face Germany’s Constantin Frantzen and Hendrik Jebens in the second round of the prestigious Grand Slam tennis tournament.

The first set began with both pairs matching each other point for point. They were tied at 5-5 before Bopanna-Ebden managed to break their Dutch opponents and went ahead.

The second set also began on level-pegging and neither pair could take a decisive lead. With the score at 4-4, the Indo-Australian pair broke through once more to surge ahead.

Though the final game was a tense affair, Bopanna and Ebden, Wimbledon semi-finalists from 2023, held their nerves to secure a victory and made it to the next round of the men’s doubles.

India’s Sumit Nagal and his Serbian partner Dusan Lajovic, however, suffered a straight-set loss in the men’s doubles first round. They lost to Pedro Martinez and Jaume Munar of Spain 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and seven minutes.

Even though Nagal and Lajovic saved three break points in the third game of the first set, they failed to hold their serve and fell behind. The Spaniards pressed the early advantage to comfortably take the set.

Nagal-Lajovic fell behind early in the second set but managed to draw level at 2-2. However, the Spanish team won the next four games on the trot to seal the first-round tie.

Sumit Nagal was also eliminated from the first round of the men’s singles after losing 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 to Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia.

India’s N Sriram Balaji and Yuki Bhambri will be in men’s doubles action on Thursday, albeit with different partners.