Sania Mirza makes winning return to Wimbledon, sails into second round with Mattek-Sands

London: Star India player Sania Mirza and her doubles partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands sailed into the second round of the ongoing Wimbledon Championships on Thursday.

Sania and her American partner easily defeated the doubles pair of Desirae Krawczyk and Alexa Guarachi in the first round of women's doubles. Krawczyk, Guarachi gave a tough fight to Sania and Mattek-Sands in the first set however, the Indian tennis star along with her partner clinched the opening set 7-5. Riding on the winning momentum, Sania and Mattek-Sands thrashed sixth seed pair of Krawczyk- Guarachi in the second set with a 6-3 win to kick off the quest of Grand Slam in style.

The match lasted for one hour and 28 minutes as Sania and her partner won 76 points, 17 more than their opponents.

Meanwhile, in the men's singles match, the number four seed, Alexander Zverev, eased into the third round with a straightforward victory over Tennys Sandgren. Zverev defeated Sandgren 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 to clinch the one-hour 45 minutes long game.

There were 62 ranking places between the pair and it showed in the way the German worked his opponent around the court despite Sandgren's determination to chase the ball down.

Earlier this week, American tennis star Serena Williams was forced to retire during her opening match of the tournament. The seven-time singles Wimbledon champion sustained an injury during her first-round match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.

In just the fourth game, Serena slipped on the grass and had to leave the court to receive treatment to her left ankle. She tried to carry on but retired at 3-3 after 34 minutes of play.