Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu Give India Hope At Rio 2016 As Others Fail On Day 6
As the on-field struggles of Indian athletes in the Rio Olympics continued on the sixth consecutive day, star badminton players Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu's opening wins were the bright spots for the country.
BCCL
Where the London Olympics bronze medallist Saina beat Brazillian Lohaynny Vicente 21-17 21-17, the tall Sindhu girl beat Laura Sarosi of Hungary 21-8, 21-9 in the opening group encounter. Another favourable result in the group will help them seal the pre-quarterfinal berth.
Saina entered the women's singles fray with an expectant anticipation of at least a silver medal this time after her success four years back and has has started her campaign with a bang against an opponent ranked 73rd in the world.
AFP
Sindhu, meanwhile, had a much more assured game by trouncing Hungary's 64-ranked shuttler.
However, in the doubles division, India didn't start their badminton campaign on the high with highly fancied Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa losing their opening match to Japanese pair of Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi 21-15, 21-10. The men's team of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy lost 21-18, 21-13 to Indonesians Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.
PTI
On Day 6, major disappointments of the day included the losses suffered by archers Bombayla Devi and Deepika Kumari in their pre-quarters and the loss by bantamweight boxer Shiva Thapa to London Olympic gold-medallist Robeisy Ramirez of Cuba.
In field hockey, India lost a closely contested affair against higher ranked Netherlands 2-1 but are still in fray for a quarter-final berth if they draw or win against Canada in their final group match.
