Sriram Balaji is the 1st Indian Army Man in Wimbledon

N Sriram Balaji created history when he became the first Indian army personnel to reach the main draw of Wimbledon.

The 26-year-old is a Junior Commissioned Officer at the Madras Engineering Group (MEG) in Bengaluru.

He has qualified for the famous grass court tournament in the Men’s Doubles category. Balaji and his partner and compatriot Vishnu Vardhan defeated Denys Molchanov and Igor Zelenay 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of qualifiers.

As a result of the victory, the duo will be the only Indian pair to feature in this year’s edition. This also marks their maiden Grand Slam appearance in their careers.

To commemorate the achievement, the Indian Army celebrated?with a congratulatory tweet.

The Coimbatore native started his career in 2000 at the age of 10. He was so talented that he ranked first in the Under-12 category in the country in 2002. Sriram joined the MEG or ‘Madras Sappers’ in 2017 and has won five ATP Challenger Cups since then.

In May, he partnered Vardhan and won the Doubles title in the ATP?Challenger tournament at Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

In 2017, Sriram won a Davis Cup match in the doubles category against Uzbekistan. He currently has a Doubles world ranking of 117.

Balaji and Vardhan are not the only Indians in the Wimbledon draw, however. Another player from Tamil Nadu, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan has given Indian fans yet another reason to cheer. He has qualified for Wimbledon along with his American partner Austin Krajicek. This will be the second time Jeevan is making an appearance at SW19.He debuted in the tournament back in 2017.

Meanwhile on the women’s front, Ankita Raina was bidding to become the first Indian woman to feature in the singles category. Sadly, she lost in the qualifiers, 2-6, 7-5, 4-6 by Russia’s world number 132 Vitalia Diatchenko.

The question for Indian fans will be, how far will the Indian contingent go?