Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, July 2: A proud moment for Jammu and Kashmir, as daughter of soil, Ankita Raina has reached Wimbledon Championship 2021- a Grand Slam Tennis Tournament which is currently taking place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London.
The tournament had begin on June 28 and will be culminated on July 11 by holding various events including singles, doubles and mixed events of men and women.
With this achievement, she has become the first girl from the J&K who has been taking part in ongoing Tennis World Championship and has shared the tennis court with top most world famous tennis players including American tennis star-Lauren Davi in women’s doubles and India’s top tennis player Ramkaumar Ramanathan in mixed event.
Ankita Raina was born to a Kashmiri Pandit family which hails from Tral of Pulwama district. Her family left the Kashmir in the year of 1990 during the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley and settled down in Gujarat. Raina got training at Pune based Hemant Bendrey Tennis Academy and represented the India on various occasions including South Asian Games 2016 where she clinched Gold medals in women’s singles and mixed doubles event and also shined in Asian Games 2018 with Bronze in singles event.
It is pertinent to mention here that Raina is India’s number one WTA player in singles and doubles and won the WTA-level title. At the national level events, Raina had represented State of Gujarat on various occasions.
In today’s doubles mixed event, the experienced pair of Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza trounced the brand new combination of Ramkaumar Ramanathan and Ankita Raina with 6-2 7-6 (5) in the historic all-Indian mixed doubles first round match.
It was the first time in open era that two Indian teams competed against each other at a Grand Slam tournament. The first set ended quickly in favour of the veterans while Ramkumar and Raina presented a good fight in the second set, which even they led for a brief period with a break of serve. On expected lines, Ramkumar served big while Raina gave her all after growing in confidence.
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