Team Micromax Indian Aces’ Ana Ivanovic of Serbia celebrates with teammates Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna of India after their mixed doubles match against UAE Royals at the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) in Singapore December 2, 2014.
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The Indians again put pressure Venus’ serve to force another service break in the seventh game and take a comfortable 5-2 lead.
A resurgence from the American pair saw them claw their way back into the match in the second set. However, Rohan’s powerful serve saw them through.
But a fired up Ram led the United States comeback in the second set.
That seemed to provide some much needed morale booster to the Americans and Ram comfortably held his serve in the next game to increase the lead to 4-1.
After qualifying for the final, an elated Lalita said that she was looking to give her best in the final on the Independence day. On the other hand, it was Rohan who found his rhythm on the serve -serving aces at will. His big serve made life very easy for the pair.
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.
He certainly was not as dynamic as he usually is. The Indian pair went down in an hour and 11 minutes at the Olympic Tennis Centre’s Court 1.
Venus and Ram will take on fellow Americans Jack Sock and Bethanie Mattek-Sands for the gold medal.
Stepanek, a former partner of men’s doubles partner of India’s Leander Paes, was in prime form at that stage.
But the rest of the day was mostly disappointing for Indian fans with Shooters Gagan Narang and Gurpreet Singh and shot putter Vikas Gowda also added to India’s woes. In a fast paced, nerve-wrecking match, it was the big heart and never-say-die spirit of the Spanish pair that finally proved to be the match victor.
The Indian pair still has a shot at the bronze medal for which they will now play losers in the of the encounter between Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock of the U.S. versus Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.
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In the ladies’ singles, German Angelique Kerber will take on unseeded Puerto Rican M Puig. But there was no containing Williams’ class as she eventually got her game together and from there on the Indians didn’t have any answer to the questions that her hard ground strokes posed. Sania, who is already 29 and has recovered from three career-threatening injuries, knows that it was her last and best chance to win an Olympic medal.
