Palembang: Ankita Raina and top seeds men’s doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan assured India of at least a couple of bronze medals by progressing to the tennis semi-finals in Asian Games here on Wednesday.

World no. 189, Raina dispatched Hong Kong’s Eudice Chong 6-4, 6-1 to enter the last four of the women’s singles competition. In all the five events here, both losing semi-finalists get a bronze. 

Bopanna and Sharan played a solid match against the seasoned pairing of Yang Hsieh and Yang Tsung-Hua of Chinese Taipei 6-3, 5-7, 10-1. 

Ramkumar Ramathan, second seed in the men’s singles, however disappointed in his round-of-16 match against Jurabek Karimov of Uzbekistan losing 6-3, 4-6, 3-6.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran, however, got one step closer to a medal after advancing to the quarter finals. He beat Vietnam’s Ly Hoang Nam 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. 

The only Indian pairing left in the mixed doubles draw is of Bopanna and Raina, who beat Wong Chun Hun and Eudice Chong of Hong Kong 6-4, 6-4 to enter the quarter finals. 

The Indian women’s compound archery team qualified second for the quarter finals, pipped by powerhouse Korea in the ranking round.

 Indian rowers Rohit Kumar and Bhagwan Singh topped the repechage round in the men’s lightweight double sculls with a timing of 7:12.23 on Wednesday. They qualified for the main A-final. 

Narender Grewal (65kg) had to be content with a bronze medal yet again after losing the men’s sanda semi-finals even as the Indian wushu team savoured its best-ever show at the continental showpiece with four medals. 

Talking about the badminton draw, slotted in different halves of the draw, PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal can only square off in the title round as the singles action begins, on Thursday. Third seed Sindhu will open her campaign against Vietnam’s Thi Trang Vu while Saina has been pitted against Iran Soraya Aghaeihajiagha. 

PTI