India's first day at Rio: Most medal hopefuls failed just when it mattered the most

Indians had a miserable outing on day one of the Rio Olympics, with most medal hopefuls performing below par. The Indian Hockey team's win, along with rower Dattu Bhokanal's performance came as the lone bright spots of the day.

Chasing a 12th Olympic medal, India raced to a 2-0 lead but Ireland made a spirited comeback in the final stages. Tennis proved to be a big setback with both Sania Mirza/Prarthana Thombare and Leander Paes/Rohan Bopanna crashing out.

Shooting

Jitu Rai's recent performances had made him the poster boy of India's medal hopes on day one. Gurpreet Singh, although not a favourite, was given an outside chance of doing well. Rai qualified in sixth place, but then finished last in the finals, eliminated after a score of 78.7 after eight shots.

Singh's poor start led to his downfall. He did manage a late surge, twice getting a score of 99, but that was not enough to finish in the top eight.

Both Apurvi Chandela and Ayonika Das got off to good starts in the women's 10m air rifle, and qualification looked possible. But they performed badly with their third and fourth series, which ended their run. Chandela's final series ended at a lowly 101.4. Paul's final attempt was worse with 98 points.

Weightlifting

Mirabai Chanu, like Jitu Rai, was also in good form going into the Olympics. But the Manipuri weightlifter faltered so badly that she failed to even get a total score in the contest. The 21-year-old lost out in all her three attempts of clean and jerk, finishing second from the bottom.

Rowing

Indian rower Dattu Bhokanal gave India something to cheer about, finishing third in his heats in the men's sculls with a time of 7.21.67. The 25-year-old's showing earned him a place in the quarter-finals, scheduled for Tuesday.

Tennis

There was a big question mark over how Bopanna and Paes would work as a team. The alleged bad blood between the two had taken centrestage. The Indian duo looked rusty and were broken thrice in the first set. They bowed out despite a better display in the second set, which was decided by a tie-breaker. The Polish duo, Lukaz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski, progressed to the next round.

Sania Mirza and her academy graduate Prarthana Thombare challenged their opponents, the Chinese pair of Shuai Zhang and Shuai Peng, to the very end, but lost 6-7 (6) 7-5 5-7.

Table Tennis

India's medal hopes in table tennis crashlanded prematurely as Soumyajit Ghosh, Sharad Kamal, Mouma Das and Olympic debutant Manika Batra were all knocked out after first round defeats.