Day six of the Rio Olympics 2016 was another mixed bag for India. The mixed doubles pair of Sania Mirza-Rohan Bopanna and the men’s hockey team sealed the quarterfinal spots, even as India’s campaign continued to be haunted by setbacks in archery, boxing and women’s hockey.
Here’s how India fared on day six of the Games.
Badminton
India’s Saina Nehwal returns a shot against Brazil’s Lohaynny Vicente during a women’s badminton match.
Indian shuttlers had a mixed day in office as singles players Saina Nehwal, P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth made a resounding start to their campaign, but the women’s doubles duo of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa and the men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost their opening matches.
Earlier in the day, London Games bronze winner Saina staved off a spirited challenge from World no 73, Brazilian Vicente Lohaynny, 21-17 21-17 in a match that lasted 39 minutes; while two-time World Championship bronze medallist, Sindhu, outplayed World no 64 Laura Sarosi of Hungary 21-8 21-9 in just 27 minutes.
Saina will face World no 61 Maria Ulitina of Ukraine in a Group G match and ninth seed Sindhu will clash with Glasgow Commonwealth Games champion Li Michelle of Canada in Group M to complete the preliminary group engagements.
Srikanth started his Olympic campaign in superb fashion as well, breezing past Lino Muzon of Mexico in straight games in the opening match. The only Indian to qualify in the men’s singles event, Srikanth won 21-11, 21-17 in 41 minutes. He will play his next match against Henri Hurskainen of Sweden on Sunday.
Jwala and Ashwini, however, lost their women’s doubles league opener after going down 15-21 10-21 to the World no one Japanese pair of Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsumoto. The men’s doubles duo of Manu and Sumeeth lost 18-21 13-21 to World no two Indonesian duo Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.
Tennis
India’s mixed doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna started their campaign on a positive note, defeating Sam Stosur and Jonathan Peers of Australia in straight sets.
The Indian pair overcame a strong challenge from their Australian opponents in the first set to carve out a 7-5,6-4 victory in one one hour and 13 minutes, to book their places in the quarter-finals.
They will now take on the British combination of Andy Murray and Heather Watson for a place in the semi-finals, bringing them closer to medal contention.
Source From : firstpost.com
