Indian Challenge Ends Early as Bhambri, Balaji Suffer First-Round Exits at Wimbledon

London: Indian tennis player Yuki Bhambri crashed out in the first round of men’s doubles at Wimbledon on Court 10 on Thursday. Bhambri and his partner, Australian Michael Venus went down to Netherlands’ Jean Julien Rojer and American Theodore Winegar in straight sets 6-3, 6-4.

Today’s loss marks the first time the 33-year-old has failed to progress past the first round in Grand Slams this year, after reaching the third and second rounds at the Australian Open and French Open respectively.

Bhambri had a much more successful year in 2025 in comparison, when he made it to the semifinals of the 2025 US Open, his career-best peformance to date.

As for the other Indians taking part, N Sriram Balaji also crashed out in the first round of men’s doubles at Wimbledon on Court 8.

Balaji and his partner, Brazilian Marcelo Demoliner went down to Belgium’s Sander Gille and Netherlands Sem Verbeek in three sets 6-3, 6-7 (2), 4-6.

The 36-year-old came into this year’s Wimbledon on the back of reaching the quarterfinals in the 2026 Roland Garros but failed to bring that form into the grass court Grand Slam this year.

Elsewhere, Anirudh Chandrashekhar, the last Indian in the fray along with his men’s doubles partner, Japan’s Takeru Yuzuki also followed suit, losing to Canada’s Ignacio Buse and Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-7 (10) on Court 11. Agencies

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