The ninth day of Rio Olympics 2016 could have been a positive day for India, but it turned into despairing one. Gymnast Dipa Karmakar lost out on bronze medal by a whisker, and the mixed doubles pairing of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna also lost to end their campaign without a medal.
The men's hockey team, despite their valiant effort, could not defeat Belgium in the quarterfinals. However, the biggest upset came in the form of shuttler Saina Nehwal in the women's singles event. She was shockingly knocked out of the women's singles event after losing to world no. 61 Marija Ulitina.
It was a below performance from the Indian shuttler, who later confirmed that she was not able to move on the court due to knee pain, which she suffered injury just prior to the Olympics. However, the other two Indian singles players, PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth reached the prequarters of the competition, and India have hopes from the two shuttlers to bring home a medal.
Talking about medal, Karmakar, who was competing in a field of some top gymnasts, looked confident, but only managed to finish fourth with score of 15.066. Giulia Steingruber from Switzerland finished third with 15.216. It was close yet so far for the gymnast from Tripura, who can be proud of her performance in a sport, where India is relatively unknown.
The pairing of Sania-Bopanna, who had earlier lost out in the semifinals, faltered in the bronze medal match as well. The Indian pair lost to Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradceka, who won the match 6-1, 7-6 in an entertaining affair.
The men's hockey team also could not deliver the goods in the knockout stages as they could not get past Belgium, who defeated India 3-1. India looked good in the first half, with 1-0 lead, but India conceded three goals in the second half to end their hopes of a medal.
Good news did not pour in from boxing as well, with Manoj Kumar losing 0-3 to a boxer from Uzbekistan, Gaibnazarov in the pre-quarters.
