Indian tennis players Sania Mirza and her partner Prarthana Thombare were eliminated in the first round of the women's doubles event at the Olympics on Saturday after going down 6-7 (6) 7-5 5-7 to the Chinese pair of Shuai Zhang and Shuai Peng.

A closely-fought first set saw three breaks of serves with the Indian duo finally succumbing via tie-breaker. They fought back in the second set and led 3-1 before Zhang and Peng made things 5-5. However, Mirza and Thombare held on to win the second set and take it to a third.

A tight third set also saw the score tied at 5-5, before the Chinese duo zoomed ahead to win.