Xtra Time Web Desk: With just eight days to go for the start of Tokyo Olympics, athletes are busy with their last minute preparations. Like every Olympics, this time also there will huge expectation from Indian fans to see the country’s sportspersons winning laurels for the country. A total of 126 athletes across 18 sporting categories will be part of India’s Olympic contingent for the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics slated to begin from July 23. Xtra Time is analyzing India’s chances of winning a medal at the various disciplines. Let’s take a look at the Indian tennis team.
Indian squad: Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina
Past performances in Olympics: India’s only moment of glory arrived in 1996 Atlanta Olympics when Leander Paes won a bronze medal for the country. That is the only medal won by an Indian in Olympics tennis event till date. Leander going down fighting against Andre Agassi in the semi final match is still remembered by tennis fans in the country. Paes defeated Fernando Meligeni of Brazil in the bronze medal match 3-6,6-2, 6-4. During the last Olympics in Rio, the mixed doubles duo of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna was a set away from making it to the final – which would have guaranteed at least a silver medal. But they lost out in the semi-final to the American team of Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram. They also lost 6-1, 7-5 in the bronze medal match to Czech team Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka. The fancied men’s doubles team of Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna crashed out in the first round. In the women’s doubles category, the Sania Mirza-Prarthana Thombare duo also saw an early exit with a first round defeat.
Tennis is perhaps the one sport that has grabbed headlines in India mostly for the wrong reasons before the Tokyo Olympic Games. For the first time since tennis was re included into the Olympics programme in 1988, there will be no men’s doubles pair in the main draw. India’s leading doubles specialists by world ranking — Rohan Bopanna (40) and Divij Sharan (74), who have a combined ranking of 114 was not good enough to make the cut. The 2018 Asian Games gold medal winning pair will feel gutted because of the lack of transparency in the selection. Portugal’s Joao Sousa and Pedro Sousa made the cut despite their best combined rank over 200. The reason was both of them got singles wild cards. Even the second Spanish team of Pablo Andujar and Roberto Carballes Baena had best combined rankings of 170. That leaves the country with just a solitary entry in women’s doubles.
Sania Mirza: She will be competing in her fourth Olympics – a record for Indian women. Sania will be partnering debutant Ankita Raina. Sania made a return to professional tennis three years after taking a maternity leave at the Wimbledon this year. She partnered American Bethanie Mattek-Sands but the duo bowed out of the women’s doubles in the second round. She also lost her third round match in mixed doubles, partnering Rohan Bopanna.
Ankita Raina: The No 1 ranked women’s player will be making her first appearance at the Olympics. Ankita is currently ranked 182. Her last outing was a disappointing one as she lost in the first round of Wimbledon qualifiers. The 28-year-old from Gujarat lost 3-6 6-7 to a higher-ranked American Varvara Lapchenko. She recently broke into the world’s top 100 in women’s doubles on the back of winning her first-ever WTA 250 title at Phillip Island in Australia. She has been partnering with Sania in the Billie Jean King Cup.
Realistically it will be tough for Sania and Ankita to win a medal at the Tokyo Olympics, keeping into account their recent form.