India put up a dismal show on Day four of Tokyo Olympics

Sharath Kamal proved to be the saving grace as he beat Tiago Apolonia of Portugal 2-11, 11-8, 11-5, 9 – 11, 11—6 and 11—9 to enter the third round of men’s table tennis singles. In the third round Sarath will face the reigning champion Ma Long of China.

In the women's section both Manika Batra and  Sutirtha Mukherjee  made their exit in second and third round matches  respectively .

While Monika lost to  Sofia Polkanova of Austria in straight sets 8-11, 2-11,  5-11 and 7 -11, Sutirtha put up a tough fight before bowing down to  Yu Fu of Portugal  11-2,  8—11,  5—11,  11—9,  6—11 and 9—11. 

India’s first event of the day saw Bhavani Devi winning her first match against Tunisia's Nadia Ben Azizi in women's sabre event. Bhavani, however, failed to repeat her performance in the next round as she lost  against Manon Brunet of France.  Bhavani Devi is the first Indian to win a match in fencing at Olympics.

Similarly  Indian men archery team consisting Tarun Deep Rai, Atanu Das and Pravin Jadhav also after winning their  first match against Kazakhstan 6-2  succumbed  against South Korea  0-5 in the quarter final.

In women’s hockey India after being thrashed 1-5 by Netherlands in the earlier match displayed  some better show which however was not enough against strong contender Germany who won 2-0. India managed to force a penalty stroke  and some scoring opportunities  which they failed to convert.

Sumit Nagal of India hits a return during the mens singles second round tennis match between Daniil Medvedev of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and Sumit Nagal of India at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, July 26, 2021.

Indian shooters  continued with their  poor show  as  Angad Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmed Khan  failed to qualify for the men’s skeet final.  After qualifying rounds Bajwa and Khan were placed  18th and  25th respectively.

In the second round of men’s badminton S Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty  lost their  second round match against  Marcus Fernaldi and  Kevin Sanjaya  of  Indonesia.

After winning his first round match against  Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan Saturday,  Sumit Nagal  tried to put up a fight  against Daniil Medvev  from Russia. But the world number two Medvedev, competing here under the banner of  Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) as Russia is banned  from participating  in this Olympics for doping  charges,  proved to be too good for the Indian Medvedev who won 6-2 and 6-1.

27-year-old Sajan Prakash who  competed in men’s 200 m backstroke failed to qualify for the next round finishing  24th overall in heat  clocking  1m 57.22 s.

In sailing where India is participating for the first time,  Bishnu Sarvanan  and Nethra Kumanan  are placed  25th and 28th position in men and women section of Laser Radial event  till  fourth round. Though some more rounds are to be held, their chances  in this event are  very remote.