SPORTS

Sania gets easy draw at Wimbledon

June 20, 2008 18:24 IST

Sania Mirza earned an easy opener as she was drawn against unseeded Colombian Catalino Castano at the 2008 Wimbledon championships, beginning in London on June 23.

Though the Indian ace, seeded 32nd, has struggled to find her range since coming back from an injury lay-off, she will start more confident against the 29-year-old Castano, who is ranked more than 100 places behind her and has not gone past the first round in five visits to Wimbledon.

Sania is placed in the last quarter of the draw and could meet defending champion Venus Williams in the third round.

She had a disappointing build-up to the grasscourt Grand Slam, crashing out in the second round of the two warm-up events she played.

In doubles, Sania and American partner Bethanie Mattek, seeded 13th, will take on the British pair of Elena Baltacha Naomi Cavaday in the opening round.

India will be represented in the men's doubles draw by Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, albeit with different partners.

Fourth seeds Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas meet Germany's Philipp Petzschner and Alexander Peya of Austria.

Drawn in the same half, Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisam Qureshi, who made their Grand Slam debut as a team at the French Open last month, will face tenth seeds Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg of Poland.

Meanwhile, in the bottom-half, Paes and Lukas Dlouhy, seeded ninth, begin their campaign against the British pair of James Auckland and Jamie Delgado.

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