In the quarterfinals, the Indian duo will take on the unseeded Great Britain pair of Andy Murray and Heather Watson who beat Spanish combo of David Ferrer and Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6-3 in another first round match. However, the Americans upped their game to bag the second set 6-2, breaking the Indians twice.
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Rio de Janeiro: India lifted its sagging morale as Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna cruised into the semifinals while pugilist Vikas Krishan advanced to the quarters on a day the shooters, archers, shuttlers and track and field athletes suffered reverses at the Rio Olympics here.
Clinching an Olympic medal will be the most fitting way to cap what’s been a spectacular couple of years for Sania Mirza. But, we leave all the emotions back when we get to the next match.
Bopanna began with a double fault and Sania’s consecutive volley errors meant that Indians were first to blink.
But Sania’s serve was broken in the 11th game of the set to make it 6-5 for Hradecka to serve it out for the match.
There was plenty of anticipation as Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna took the court in the mixed doubles tennis bronze-medal match. We hope that this puts to rest some fabricated stories that have been doing the rounds in some sections of the media. “But that’s sport. It will take some time to get over it”.
In Skeet, Mairaj shot a total of 121 along with four other shooters, requiring a shoot-off for the final two spots to reach the semi-finals at the Olympic Shooting Centre.
Even as “come on India” chants grew louder, Sania and Bopanna held on to their serve to surge ahead 4-2.
Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis today maintained that the decision to end their astonishing partnership was due to the failure to achieve the “desired results” and added they would play together one last time in the season-ending WTA Finals in October.
The man who has won India’s only tennis medal so far, a bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, was watching from the sidelines.
The Indians quickly regrouped and looked to have rediscovered their form when leading 3-1.
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India squandered a one-goal advantage as they allowed Canada to stage a fightback with a late strike and earn a 2-2 draw in their final men’s hockey pool game. First set saw no dropped point and it was only in the ninth game that Peers’ serve was broken. Saina also conceded a lot of points on misjudgement and was not able to retrieve once the shuttle moved behind her. He had won a singles bronze at 1996 Atlanta Games.
