I started practicing at the Aorangi park at the All England Club and had a first doubles match (with Pakistan's Aisam Qureshi) scheduled for Tuesday against the 10th seeds from Poland (Mariusz Fyrstenbeg and Marcin Matkowski).

It was an interesting draw and I had never played them before and was all set for my first match at the beautiful grass courts..

We started off well and got and early break and faced a few break points ourselves but manged to pull through that (Bopanna-Qureshi 6-3, 7-5, 6-4).

We then played much stronger and came through the match in 3straight sets as at Wimbledon the doubles is best of 5 sets. I was thrilled to win my first match and had a big smile all day.

Next up was couple of Spanish guys (Marcel Granollers-Pujol and Santiago Ventura) but we did not get through. All credit to them they way they played and returned and gave us a tough time time out there.

But first time playing and winning a round was a good feeling.

Till the last day of the mixed doubles sign in closed I could not find a partner and then I found a player from Belarus (Tatiana Poutchek) and also won a round in the mixed which was great as well!

We eventually fell to the 13th seeds on Saturday (lost 6-3, 7-6 to Simon Aspelin and Lisa Raymond). But it was fun playing out there and loved every single moment of it.

So out of Wimbledon in the first week itself but hopefully 2009 Wimbledon I will be playing during the 2nd week also.

Next up is the ATP Tour event in the US at Newport which is on grass as well so will be playing singles qualifying there and doubles main draw.

Rohan
June 30, 2008

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