London: India's Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea began their campaign at the Wimbledon championships with a hard-fought win over over Tim Smyczek and Jiri Vesley in the men's doubles, here today.

The ninth-seeded Indo-Romanian pair eked out a 6-3 7-6(1) 6-1 win over the unseeded American-Czech team in one hour and 26 minutes at court no. 19.