India's top ranked singles players, Somdev Devvarman and Sania Mirza suffered first round defeats at Wimbledon tune-up events in the England on Tuesday.
Sania, back inside the world's top 60 this week after starting the year outside the top 160, suffered a three set loss to the 20 year old Austrian Tamira Paszek, currently ranked 80th in the world, in the first round of the Ageon Classic in Birmingham.
The 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 loss was a disappointing start to the grass court season for Sania, who is riding high after reaching the finals of the French Open doubles event with Russian partner Elena Vesnina. The duo are now third in the race to the year-end WTA Championships, which brings together the world's top 4 doubles teams.
Meanwhile in London, Somdev Devvarman also suffered a disappointing loss to Mathew Ebden, of Australia at the Ageon Classic (Queens Club). Ebden, ranked 167th in the world, won 7-5, 6-3 to set up a showdown with world no. 1 Rafael Nadal in the second round. Devvarman has now lost his last 6 matches on tour.
At the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, the Indo-Pak Express Rohan Bopanna and Aisam Ul Huq Qureshi, seeded No. 1 at this event, were comfortable 7-5, 6-3 winners over Ivan Dodig and Alexandr Dolgopolov.
Finally, at the ITF Futures in Delhi, Indian teenager Yuki Bhambri won his first round match beating American Joel Kincaid 6-2, 6-4. Bhambri is one of 13 Indians into the second round, including second seed Rohan Gajjar and 21 year old Vijayant Malik, who lost to Gajjar in the finals of the ITF Manipal futures a couple of weeks ago.
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