His heroes were Boris Becker and Pete Sampras. “And that’s the way we played”, he said.
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Vikas is now just one win away from a medal.
Chawrasia, who took his three-day total to two-under 211, was looking set for a top-15 finish but two closing bogeys forced him to settle for a 69.
“You feel a lot better as she brings the best out of me”. This was my first Olympics.
The poor show of shooters continued on day one of the two-day men’s skeet and 25m rapid fire events where Mairaj and Gurpreet were lying behind the field but have a chance to atone today. No matter what happens I know I was the one who’s going to be attacked.
The duo of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna were expected to do well at the Rio Olympics and especially from Sania Mirza.
Rajeev’s succinct assessment of their performance stands up to scrutiny.
A resurgence from the American pair saw them claw their way back into the match in the second set.
However, after Stosur was broken in the 11th game, Sania served out the set. Murray failed to put across a strong forehand return from Sania, putting the Indians ahead 4-3. Venus Williams, who had a very passive first set, came to life and the Americans started playing better at the start of the second set.
Earlier in the day, London Games bronze victor Saina staved off a spirited challenge from World No. 73 Brazilian Vicente Lohaynny 21-17 21-17 in a women’s singles match that lasted 39 minutes, while two-time World Championship bronze medallist Sindhu spanked World No. 64 Laura Sarosi of Hungary 21-8 21-9 in 27 minutes. The Americans could not find the appropriate answer to his serve.
In the next game, Indians put pressure on Ram’s serve before forcing a break at 0-40. His fluid single hander backhand was in fine working fettle on the night and provided some sparkling moments with passes past desperate racquets. He has never made it past the second round in any Grand Slam Singles tournament.
However, the Indians immediately got the break back as Watosn dropped serve at love.
The Indians took a 3-2 lead in the tie-breaker before Venus levelled the scores with an excellent cross court victor.
Later, India got plenty of opportunities but failed to scored the victor.
In the stadium, the Indian cheering squad had fallen eerily silent with a lone voice shrieking, “Come on”. “We didn’t panic, we didn’t feel like we had to do a whole lot different to try and win. We had to do a few things, like try different formations but we believed in ourselves no matter what the score was”. Both, Sania and Bopanna lost their concentration and this cost them the match.
The Americans will play for the gold medal against the winners of the other semi-final encounter between Radek Stepanek/Lucie Hradecka and Jack Sock/Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
Together the pair won 13 titles over a 16-month span, including three consecutive majors at 2015 Wimbledon, the 2015 US Open, and 2016 Australian Open, as well as the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global last fall.
Stepanek, a former partner of men’s doubles partner of India’s Leander Paes, was in prime form at that stage.
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“Both of the teams are going to be in the same situation. We have a great chance of winning tomorrow”, Bopanna added.
