Ankita Raina, Divij Sharan bow out of Australian Open

Ankita Raina and Divij Sharan suffer defeats in their respective doubles matches in the opening round of the Australian Open.

Divij Sharan (in picture) and his men's doubles partner Igor Zelenay lost 6-1, 6-4 to Yannick Hanfmann and Kevin Krawietz. - GETTY IMAGES (FILE)

India’s Divij Sharan and Ankita Raina crashed out of the Australian Open after suffering straight-set defeats in the opening round on Thursday.

SCORE CENTRE

In women’s doubles, Ankita and her partner Mihaela Buzarnecu of Romania lost 6-3, 6-0 in just one hour and 17 minutes to Australian wildcard pair of Olivia Gadecki and Belinda Woolcock.

India’s challenge also ended in men’s doubles after Divij and his Slovakian partner Igor Zelenay lost 6-1, 6-4 against the German combination of Yannick Hanfmann and Kevin Krawietz in the first-round match that lasted an hour and four minutes.

On Wednesday, the other Indian in men’s doubles event, Rohan Bopanna, and Japan’s Ben McLachlan bowed out in the opening round after a 6-4, 7-6(0) defeat to the Korean wildcard pair of Ji Sung Nam and Min-Kyu Song.

The veteran Bopanna, however, still has a chance to make amends in the competition as he will partner China’s Yingying Duan in the mixed doubles and will be up against the pair of American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and United Kingdom’s Jamie Murray in the first round.