Rio Olympics: India’s medal hopes flicker courtesy Sania-Bopanna, boxer Vikas

Vikas then stood a win away from an elusive Olympic medal as he outclassed Turkey’s Sipal Onder 3-0 to make the quarterfinals of men’s 75kg middleweight boxing. Serving for the match at 5-4, Bopanna produced a couple of booming aces to clinch the game and send the sizeable Indian contingent among the crowd into celebration mode. “That worked.” Sania also admitted that it’s the woman who is usually put under pressure.

In Shooting Men’s 25m rapid fire pistol, Gurpreeth Singh was in 1st Position at the end of First round but as the time passed numerous shooters surpassed him in the first stage.

Of all India’s events today, the hockey match was the most engaging (though Atanu had a few gasp-inducing shots of brilliance). Akashdeep Singh made it 1-0 for India after scoring on a penalty corner rebound.

Sania and Bopanna can now hope for a better performance in the bronze medal play-off and give India its first medal in the Rio Games.

Sania, along with her partner Bopanna, started their Olympics campaign on a positive note, defeating Sam Stosur and Jonathan Peers of Australia in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 on Thursday to book their place in the quarter-finals.

The tall Indian made light of the seedings saying, “The seedings don’t matter, with two sets and a deciding tie-break anybody has a chance”.

The team won their semifinal match on Saturday against the Indian team of Mirza/Bopanana. She became the first Indian to reach the final of a track event at the Olympics in 32 years. He climbs to 6th place with an overall total of 97. This was my first Olympics.

In his men’s single sculls semi-final bracket, rower Dattu Baban Bhokanal finished second after briefly leading.

It took them into the last four as the only seeded unit still surviving and set up a clash against the American pair of Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram, another doubles specialist. He had to battle out a deuce to eventually hold the first game.

Manu and Sumeeth lost to the Chinese pair of Biao Chai and Wei Hong 13-21 15-21. She secured only 16.76m in her third attempt to finish a disappointing 23rd at the Olympic Stadium. The Kerala athlete clocked 1:47.27 minute to cover the distance.