Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare crashed out of women’s doubles event at the Rio 2016 Olmypics in the first round. The Indian pairing lost 6-7, 7-5, 7-5 to Chinese pairing of Shuai Zhang and Shuai Peng in a marathon two hours and 44 minutes encounter.
Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare suffer a tough defeat to China’s Shuai Peng and Shuai Zhang.
Indian challenge in tennis now remains confined to Sania and Rohan Bopanna in the mixed doubles , the only event where they are supposed to have realistic medal chance.
Had his partner been close in terms of quality, Sania would have taken India home as she shouldered bulk of the responsibility.
Prarthana, considered to be the weak link, showed fighting skills but the quality was simply not there. It was her poor service that cost India the match as she lost her serve on multiple occasions.
