Bopanna, Mergea make it to Wimbledon pre-quarters

India's Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea battled past Thomas Bellucci and Guillermo Duran in straight sets to progress to the pre-quarterfinals of the Wimbledon men's doubles event, in London on Friday.

In a closely fought second round contest, the ninth seeded Indo-Romanian pair prevailed 7-5, 7-6(5), 7-6 (5) against the unseeded Brazil-Argentine combination after fighting hard for two hours and 10 minutes.

Saving six of the seven breakpoints proved crucial for Bopanna and Mergea. They broke their rivals twice in each of the first two sets, out of all total five chances that they earned in the contest.

Bopanna will open his mixed doubles campaign later in the day with Spanish partner Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. They are up against American Eric Butorac and his Hungarian partner Katalin Marosi.