WIMBLEDON, July 6: At last, an Indian has won a title at Wimbledon. Ramesh Krishnan, the singles quarter-finalist here in 1986, in the company of Briton Jeremy Bates won the 35 and over doubles title, defeating Kevin Curren and Johan Kriek of the United States in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.Krishnan thus achieved what he failed to do when he was a professional on the Tour.

Throughout the event, they did not lose a match as they went into the semi-finals with three wins in the round-robin league which included wins over the Amritraj brothers, Anand and Vijay.

In the final today, they broke Johan Kriek early, in the third game of the first set with Ramesh's winner sealing the break. However, Ramesh could not hold his serve in the very next when he went down three break points.

He saved the first, but dropped serve to come back on serve. Their crucial break of the set came in the ninth game off Curren's serve. Curren, who lost to Becker in the 1985 final here, failed to hold. He was down 0-40, but on the second break point, he sent a return long for Jeremy Bates to serve out the first set.

In the second, after games went with serve till the ninth, Johan Kriek came inot a spot of bother on his serve. They had a game point but Ramesh and Bates had some good returns to get a break point. It seemed that Curren had an easy volley to put away on break point but sent it over the baseline. Like in the first set, Bates served out the match at love.

Bates and Ramesh shared 14,000 pounds for the win. This is Ramesh's debut year in the over-35 event.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.