Indian pair of Mallineni Sriram Balaji Vishnu Vardhan and succeeded
in their effort and qualified for the main draw in the Wimbledon qualifiers.
This will be a Grand Slam debut for Balaji, who hails from
Coimbatore. He and his partner and fellow Indian Vishnu Vardhan booked their
berth in the men's doubles draw following a 6-3, 6-4 win over top seeds Denys
Molchanov and Igor Zelenay in the second round.
It will be a maiden Grand Slam main draw appearance for
Vardhan and Balaji. "The tournament has just started for us," an
elated Balaji told TOI from London on Wednesday. "I have been partnering
with Vishnu on and off for almost 3-4 years now. But it has only been around 10
months since I have shifted my focus to playing only doubles and it has reaped
rewards for me."
This is the first year Balaji is playing on grass and the
28-year old is already feeling at home. "Vishnu and my game is perfect for
grass and though this is the first time I'm playing on grass, I'm feeling good
about it. I play more serve and volley and that is more suited to grass. We
played some Challengers before the Wimbledon to get into the rhythm and that
paid off."
Balaji is happy that even though the road to Wimbledon
hasn't been smooth for him, the hard work has finally paid off for the duo.
"The season hasn't been easy for us. It had lots of ups and downs but we
were patient and waited for our chance. When we won the Challenger in
Uzbekistan in May last year, we knew we had the rankings to play in the
qualifiers here. But we don't want to put any pressure on ourselves in
Wimbledon," Balaji added.
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