Jeevan: lucky, unlucky and lucky

In the last 24 hours, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan endured a heartbreaking development, fought stress while waiting for a 'yes' and eventually came out smiling to live his Wimbledon dream.

For the first time in his career, Jeevan earned a chance to make his Grand Slam debut but an ankle injury to his partner Hyeon Chung almost killed his dream.

However, as destiny would have it, American Jared Donaldson came as his saviour and agreed to play with the Indian left-hander at the most prestigious grass court tournament. And what a stroke of luck! With their combined ranking of 160 (Jeevan 95 and Jared 65), they grabbed the last available spot in the main doubles draw. The cut-off mark for direct entry is exactly 160 this year.

"To re-pair at exactly 160 was pretty amazing," Jeevan told PTI from Eastbourne.

Since giving up singles to focus on doubles and beginning the season with his maiden ATP World Tour title with Rohan Bopanna at the Chennai Open, playing at a Major was the next big target for the Chennai lad, married to golfer Neha Tripathi.

But the excitement of playing at the Wimbledon evaporated when Chung told him yesterday that he can't play. Now Jeevan had about 24 hours to find a new partner.

"It was tough mentally to hear the news from Hyeon but I am glad he told me before the deadline and gave me an opportunity to find someone else to beat the main draw cut. After speaking to the tournament referees and tour managers they informed me I had until the first point of qualifying which begins on Monday to re-pair,” he said.