Harsh Mankad entered the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career when he qualified for the doubles event of the Wimbledon along with Ilija Bozoljac.

Mankad and his Serbian partner, seeded eighth, edged past the Austrian-German pair of Alexander Peya and Bjorn Phau 7-6(5) 6-4 in the second and final qualifying round last night.

With his qualification, the 30-year-old Mankad ensured that India will have at least four players competing in the doubles event.

Indian participation may grow if Somdev Devvaraman also qualifies. He and Philippines' Treat Huey Conard are a step away from booking their berth in the main draw.

Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna will have a direct entry, courtesy their superior ranking along with their respective partners.

Mankad has defied a career-threatening knee injury and lack of positive results in singles since making a comeback to grow as a doubles player.

Prakash Amritraj inched closer to his only second singles Grand Slam appearance after a spirited three-set win over Australia's Marinko Matosevic.

The US-based Indian beat Matosevic 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the second round of the grass court Grand Slam.

Amritraj now will fight it out with Australia's teen sensation Bernard Tomic in the third and final round.

Amritraj had made his Grand Slam debut in 2002 when he played US Open main draw as a wild card. Ever since he has never entered the singles main draw of any of the tennis Major.

If Amritraj manages to beat the supremely talented Tomic he will become first Indian in a decade to play in the Wimbledon singles main draw.

Bhupathi was the last Indian to play in the singles event of the grass court Grand Slam in 2000 when he lost his first round to Frenchman Stephane Huet.

A year before Paes also played in the singles main draw at Wimbledon and lost in straight sets to Brazilian Andre Sa.

Meanwhile, Devvarman, who has crashed out of singles qualifiers, is still in hunt for doubles main draw as he and his Filipino partner Treat Conrad Huey beat seventh seeds Prakash and Swiss Yves Allegro 6-7 (3) 6-3 6-2 in the first round.

They will now take on top seeds Tomasz Bednarek and Matensz Kowalczylz for a place in the main draw.

Bopanna-Qureshi out of UNICEF Open

Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, meanwhie, bowed out of the UNICEF Open after a tame defeat at the hands of fourth seeds Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau in s'Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.

The Indo-Pakistan pair lost the quarter-finals of the euro 450,000 grass court event 2-6, 3-6 to the Sweden-Romania combination.

However, the Indian challenge is still alive in the build-up event to the Wimbledon as Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy, the top seeds, are still in fray.

They will play their quarter-final against the Dutch pair of Thiemo De Bakker and Robin Haase.