Wimbledon 2024: Four Indians in main draw for men’s doubles

Four Indians have made it to the main draw of the Wimbledon men’s doubles roster.

Rohan Bopanna (left) is one of four Indians who will feature in the main draw of the Wimbledon men’s doubles bracket in 2024. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Rohan Bopanna, Sumit Nagal, N. Sriram Balaji and Yuki Bhambri will be the Indians in action in the men’s doubles main draw of Wimbledon 2024.

Rohan Bopanna will partner Matthew Ebden, Sumit Nagal will compete alongside Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic, Bhambri will pair up with Frenchman Albano Olivetti and Balaji will play with local player Luke Johnson.

Bopanna and his Australian partner Ebden reached the semifinals last year, losing in straight sets to eventual winners Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Great Britain’s Neal Skupski.

The All India Tennis Association (AITA) on June 13 announced the “qualification” of Bopanna and Balaji for the doubles event of the Paris Olympics.

There was considerable suspense about Bopanna’s doubles partner, as he had qualified straight as a top-10 doubles player, with his world rank of No.4. Bopanna had kept a studied silence all along even though he had made up his mind to partner Balaji.

Nagal, on the other hand, achieved a new career-high ranking of 71 in the latest ATP Rankings released on Monday, making him the joint-fourth highest-ranked Indian man ever since the introduction of the computerised system of rankings in 1973.

The 26-year-old Nagal, who finished as runner-up at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Perugia, climbed six spots to move past Leander Paes and join Sashi Menon on the all-time list. Paes had a career-high singles ranking of 73 in 1998.

Ahead of Nagal and Menon, who was ranked 71st in the world in 1975, are Somdev Devvarman (62), Ramesh Krishnan (23) and Vijay Amritraj (18).

Recently, Nagal clinched his sixth title on the Challenger Tour in Heilbronn, Germany, a result which has likely secured him a spot at Paris Olympics.