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Elena Vesnina and Leander Paes hold their mixed doubles runners-up trophy

SECOND seeds Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond beat Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles title 6-3 5-7 6-4 on Sunday (July 8).

It was Raymond’s second mixed title at the All England Club after she won it in 1999, playing with Sunday’s opponent Paes.

The American duo recovered from being pegged back in the second set to close out the match under the bright Centre Court lights in two hours and four minutes.

It was Paes and Vesnina’s second grand slam final defeat this year after they lost in the Australian Open to Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Horia Tecau in January.

Meanwhile, India’s plans for Olympic tennis glory suffered a blow on Tuesday (July 3) as key doubles partnership Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna were knocked out of Wimbledon, along with top doubles player Leander Paes.

Bhupathi and Bopanna, the seventh seeds, were beaten 7-5, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 in the second round by Russia’s Mikhail Elgin and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

Meanwhile, Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek, the fourth seeds, were defeated 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (7/2), 8-6 by 15th seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Brazil’s Marcelo Melo in the third round.

Bhupathi and Bopanna will represent India at the Olympics tennis tournament later this month, to be held at the All England Club.

Paes will also be back at Wimbledon, though he has been paired with the much lower-ranked Vishnu Vardhan, following a well-documented spat at the All India Tennis Association.

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