Wimbledon 2016: Rohan Bopanna, Florin Mergea open doubles campaign with close win

New Delhi: India's doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna and his partner Florin Mergea started the 2016 Wimbledon campaign with a hard-fought win on Friday.

The sixth-seeded Indo-Romanian pair defeated all-Croatian team of Marin Draganja and Nikola Mektic 7-5 7-6(6) in one hour and 22 minutes to book a second round spot in men's doubles event.

The match at court 19 featured only one break that came Bopanna and Mergea's way in the 11th game of the opening set.

Bopanna and Mergea went up 40-0 on their opponents' serve and converted third third chance. They served out the set in the next game.

The second too was very tight with both pairs holding serves. Eventually it was settled in the tie-breaker which was also tied 6-6 at one time.

From there, Bopanna and Mergea took two straight points to seal their second round berth.