The tennis mixed doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna will take on the U.S. pair of Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram tonight at 11:30 IST in the semi finals at the Rio Olympics.
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Now that the Indian pair has qualified for the quarters, it will come face to face with the Great Britain duo – the iconic Andy Murray and Heather Watson.
Sania, who is already 29 and has recoverd from three career-threarening injuries, knows that it was her last and best chance to win an Olympic medal.
The subsequent games went with the serve before Bopanna held his serve to win the set and the match.
Rio de Janeiro, Aug 12: Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza has said that she and her mixed doubles partner Rohan Bopanna will put their best foot forward to win a medal at the ongoing Rio Olympics. We go to Cincinnati and we have another shot winning a tennis match.
In the one hour and 17-minute-long fierce battle in the Olympic Tennis Centre, the Indian Origin sprinted easily, sometimes, outplaying his experienced partner.
At the tennis courts, Sania and Bopanna imposed their domination in the early stages before Venus and Ram staged a superb comeback.
Athletes Manpreet Kaur and Jinson Johnson also added to the disappointment after failing in their respective disciplines as shooter Chain Singh finished a disappointing 36th to negate his chances for 50 metre Rifle Prone finals.
Bopanna felt that the two players served well against the British duo.
The start of their second set was hardly ideal.
There was a sense of unease as the Indians took the court for the bronze medal contest.
Bopanna, who praised Venus for her gutsy performance, is however determined not to let Saturday’s disappointment affect his performance in the bronze medal play-off.
In badminton, women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa suffered their third successive loss in their final Group A match against Thailand’s Supajirakul Puttita and Taerattanachai Sapsiree. However, he bungled the advantage by shooting his poorest in the sixth and final series, which yielded him his lowest score of 102.4.
They lost the match 17-21 15-21.
The Indians were broken in their very first service game as the Czech pair utilised their first break point to take a 2-0 lead in the first set. This was my first Olympics.
Men’s quarter-miler Muhammad Anas also crashed out at the heats while long jumper Ankit Sharma failed to advance to the final round to pile on the Indian misery.
In golf, S.S.P. Chawrasia brought home a second successive even-par 71 to lie tied 30th while Anirban Lahiri carded a disappointing two-over 73 to be placed tied 51st after the second round.
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India are now on third spot in the Pool B standings with six points from four matches.
