Tennis hopes in Tokyo are riding on the shoulders of Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina.

Sania, who teamed up with Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the women’s doubles category, won 7-5, 6-3 in straight sets against the pair of Desirae Krawczyk and Alexa Guarachi on Court 8 of Wimbledon on July 1.
However, the duo was eliminated in the second round of the competition. Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Vesnina won 4-6, 3-6. Looking back on her Olympic career, Sania has competed alongside Sunitha Rao, Rushmi Chakravarthi, and Prarthana Thombare in the previous three Olympic Games in Beijing, London, and Rio de Janeiro.
Her first Olympic Games did not go as planned when she was forced to retire injured in the first round of singles against Iveta Benesova due to a wrist injury. After receiving a walkover in the first round, Sania lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina of Russia in the second round while partnering with Rao.
Four years later, in London, China’s Chuang Chia-jung and Su-Wei Hsieh defeated Saina and Chakravarthi in the first round. Sania was also a major disappointment at the Rio Games, where she failed to advance past the first round in the women’s doubles category, losing to the Chinese duo of Peng Shuai and Zhang Shuai.
Raina, on the other hand, is a lesser-known character than her star partner. In the 2021 Wimbledon Championship, she failed to qualify for the singles event after losing in the qualifiers to America’s Varvara Lepchenko 3-6, 6-7.
Raina teamed up with America’s Lauren Davis in the first round of women’s doubles against Asia Muhammad and Jessica Pegula. The Olympic-bound Indian and her partner did not advance past the first round, losing in straight sets 6-3, 6-2, but Raina played some inspiring tennis and gained valuable experience playing in tight games.
source: olympics
In an all-Indian match on July 2, Sania and Rohan Bopanna defeated Ankita Raina and Ramkumar Ramanathan in the mixed doubles first round at Wimbledon, with the former winning 6-2, 7-6 (7/5).
Despite Raina’s disappointment at Wimbledon, the 28-year-old and Sania can be expected to give higher seeded teams a tough challenge and, hopefully, a medal-winning performance at the Olympics.