Indian experienced tennis player Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden have reached the men's doubles final of the Miami Open 2024 by defeating Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos on Thursday night.

Also Read: Rohan Bopanna becomes the oldest man to win a Grand Slam in the Open Era

The pair of Bopanna and Ebden won the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year, earlier this year. The pair defeated the Spanish-Argentine duo
 6-1, 6-4 in the Miami Open semi-finals. They will face the pair of Croatia's Ivan Dodig and America's Austin Krajicek in the title match of Miami Open. In another semi-final match, the Dodig-Austin pair entered the final by defeating the German pair of Kevin Krawietz and Tim Putz 6-4, 6-7 (7), 10-7.

Bopanna has a chance to reach the top again

The 44-year-old Bopanna reached the top of the ATP rankings after his historic victory in the Australian Open. He was the oldest player to do so. Although the Indo-Australian pair had slipped to second place after losing in the quarter-finals of the Dubai Championship and the round-32 of Indian Wells. Winning the semi-finals of the Miami Open will help them regain the top position in the rankings to be released on Monday.

Also Read: 43-year-old Rohan Bopanna becomes oldest World No.1 doubles player after remarkable run to Australian Open semifinals

Bopanna won 25 doubles titles so far

This is the 14th ATP Masters 1000 final of Bopanna's career, while he has reached the Miami Open title match for the first time. Overall this is his 63rd tour-level final. Bopanna, one of India's most successful tennis players, has won 25 doubles titles in his career so far. This is the fifth ATP Masters 1000 final for the pair of Bopanna and Ebden. Moreover, another achievement has also been added to Bopanna's name; he is the second Indian player after Leander Paes to reach the finals of all nine ATP Masters events. Besides the Australian Open, Bopanna and Edebn reached the title round at the Adelaide Open in January where they lost to Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.

Hello and welcome to Sportz Point's Paris Olympics 2024 LIVE coverage as we bring you all the updates of Day 1 from our web desk as Indian Shooters look to win medals.

Along with the shooters, Indian badminton, tennis and table tennis stars will also be in action. Indian men's hockey team will also play their first match of the Summer Olympics 2024 tonight from 9 pm.

So, follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all the updates. Subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest sports news delivered to our mailbox.

The Paris Olympics 2024 has started on 26th July with a historical opening ceremony. This time the Olympics is being organized in Paris, the capital of France. For which complete preparations have been made. This time a total of 10,500 athletes are participating in the Olympics 2024. The eyes of these athletes will be on winning medals for their respective countries. 

Also Read: Full list of India's shooting squad for the Paris Olympics 2024

Talking about India, a total of 117 athletes from India are fully ready to participate in the Olympics. Among these athletes, there are 72 players who will be a part of the Olympic Games for the first time. The eyes of the entire country are fixed on these athletes. In such a situation, let's take a look at India's complete schedule on Day 2 (July 27).

The opening day of the Paris Olympics 2024 began with the ceremony. No athlete from India participated in any sport on this day. Indian athletes will play their first game on July 27. So, let us tell you in which sports Indian athletes will be seen in action on Day 2.

Also Read: Paris Olympics 2024: 6 Indian athletes who will be featuring in their last Olympics in Paris

Paris Olympics 2024 Day 2 (27th July) Schedule 

Rowing

• Men's Single Sculls Heat 1 - Balraj Panwar - 12:30 PM

Shooting

• 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team Qualification - Elavenil Valarivan & Sandeep Singh, Arjun Babuta & Ramita Jindal - 12:30 PM
• 10m Air Pistol Men's Qualification - Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema - 2:00 PM
• 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team Bronze (If Qualified) - Elavenil Valarivan & Sandeep Singh, Arjun Babuta & Ramita Jindal - 4:00 PM
• 10m Air Pistol Women's Qualification - Manu Bhaker, Rhythm Sangwan - 4:00 PM
• 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team Gold Medal (If Qualified) - Elavenil Valarivan & Sandeep Singh, Arjun Babuta & Ramita Jindal - 4:30 PM

Tennis

• Men's Doubles Round of 32 - Rohan Bopanna-Sriram Balaji vs Fabien Reboul-Edouard Roger-Vassellin (France) - 3:30 PM

Badminton

• Men's Singles Group Stage Match 1 - Lakshya Sen vs Kevin Cordon (Guatemala) - 7:10 PM
• Men's Doubles Group Stage Match 1 - Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty vs Lucas Corvee/Ronan Labar (France) - 8:00 PM
• Women's Doubles Group Stage Match 1 - Ashwini Ponnappa/Tanisha Crasto vs Kong Hee-yong/Kim So-yeong (South Korea) - 11:50 PM

Table Tennis

• Men's Singles Round of 128 - Harmeet Desai vs Zaid Abo Yaman (Jordan) - 7:15 PM

Hockey

• Men's Team Group Stage Match 1 - India vs New Zealand - 9:00 PM

Boxing

• Women's 54kg Round of 32 - Preeti Pawar vs Vo Thi Kim Anh (Vietnam) - 12:02 AM

There are only a few days left for Paris Olympics 2024 to start. Veteran players from all over the world are now making final preparations to win medals for their country. A total of 117 athletes will be seen representing India in the Olympics. The contingent has some young faces who will be making their debut while some players will be playing in their last Olympics. So, let's take a look at the 6 Indian players who will be featuring in their last Olympics in Paris.

Also Read: Most Olympic Games without any medal: Monaco, Myanmar and Bangladesh in top 30

#1 Achanta Sharath Kamal

Achanta Sharath Kamal is arguably the greatest table tennis player to have graced the court representing the Indian tri-color. He will be featured in his fifth and likely his last Olympic games as he takes charge at the Paris Olympics 2024. Sharath Kamal has been selected as the flag bearer along with PV Sindhu by the Indian Olympic Committee. Born on July 12, 1982, Sharath Kamal has just recently turned 42 and will be one of the oldest athletes to participate in the Olympics. 

In his 22-year-long career, Sharath Kamal has won eight gold, three silver, and three bronze medals in Commonwealth Games. Apart from CWG's success, Sharath Kamal boasts the record of being the only player to have won the Senior National Championships for a total of 10 times. Sharath Kamal has also won two bronze medals at the Asian Games and three bronze medals at the Asian Championships.

Despite his tremendous record at the National level and in Asia, Sharath Kamal has yet to win a medal at the Olympic Games.

#2 Rohan Bopanna

Tennis superstar Rohan Bopanna will be participating in men's doubles alongside Sriram Balaji at the Paris Olympics 2024. He recently became the oldest player to be ranked number one in men's doubles. This will be Bopanna's last Olympics as the 44-year-old is the oldest member of the Indian contingent with the table tennis player Sharath Kamal being the closest as the 42-year-old. 

Since turning pro in 2003 Bopanna has been one of the flag-bearers of Indian tennis. Bopanna also has won the French Open (mixed doubles with Gabriela Dabrowski). Recently Bopanna won the Australian Open Grand Slam in January and reached the semi-finals at the French Open in June. He represented India at the London 2012 Games and Rio 2016 but an injury denied him the chance to feature at the Tokyo Olympics.

Also Read: Top 10 Indian athletes who can win a medal at Paris Olympics 2024

#3 HS Prannoy

HS Prannoy, who will be making his first appearance at the Olympics, is determined to fulfill his dream of competing on the Olympics stage, even though it has come later in his career than he might have hoped.

At 32, an age when many badminton players consider retirement, Prannoy put together his best year on the circuit to become India’s No.1 shuttler, a feat he had never achieved previously. The man from Kerala is known to be one of the best Indian players to pick up the racquet. A world championship and Asian Games medalist, HS Prannoy was a crucial part of the Thomas Cup-winning Indian team in 2022. In 2023, he ended India's wait of 41 years to win a medal in the men's singles category at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. He also won the silver medal at the inaugural edition of the Youth Olympics in 2010 in Singapore.

#4 PR Sreejesh

A veteran of three Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and World Cups, PR Sreejesh will be playing his fourth Olympic Games and probably his last, joining legends like Dhanraj Pillay who have represented the Indian team four times at the Olympic Games.

Having made his debut at the 2010 World Cup, Sreejesh has been part of various memorable wins for India, which include a Bronze medal in Jakarta-Palembang, joint winning team of the Asian Champions Trophy in 2018, Gold medal winning team of the 2019 FIH Men's Series Finals in Bhubaneswar and Silver medal winning team at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The 36-year-old goalie was one of the main architects of India's historic Bronze medal win at the Tokyo Olympics.

Also Read: India at Olympics: India's Olympic medal tally by every edition

#5 Vinesh Phogat

Making a strong comeback to the international arena after leading a prolonged protest against former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat locked the Paris Olympics quota. The 29-year-old Vinesh has secured her third straight Olympic quota, having featured in the 2016 Rio Games and the 2020 edition Tokyo.

The road to Paris was not easy for Vinesh Phogat. The Indian wrestler had to drop down from the 53 kg to the 50 kg weight category to compete in the event, as Antim Panghal had already secured a berth in the former category. Vinesh also underwent knee surgery, which could affect her performance in the relatively unfamiliar category she has opted for in the Paris Olympics.

#6 Manpreet Singh

India midfielder Manpreet Singh has hinted that the Paris Olympics could end up being his last one as India looks for another medal in men's hockey. 32-year-old Manpreet, who will be playing his 4th Olympics, captained the side when they broke a 41-year-old Olympic medal drought in Tokyo by bagging the bronze. Besides, Manpreet has been a member of the team that won the 2014 and 2022 Asian Games gold medals.

But the journey from Mithapur village in Jalandhar to Paris has not been smooth sailing for Manpreet. He had to fight poverty, false allegations and witness mother’s struggles to make a mark in his career. After the Tokyo Olympics, Manpreet had to endure the worst phase of his career when former coach Sjoerd Marijne leveled serious allegations against him.

Manpreet is no longer captain of the side with Harmanpreet Singh taking over the responsibility, but the star mid-fielder knows his role in the team as one of the senior-most member.

India's tennis ace Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden entered the second round of men's doubles of the Wimbledon 2024 tennis tournament with an easy win over the pair of Robin Haas and Sander Arends.

Also Read: Star Sports set to broadcast Wimbledon 2024 matches with Hindi commentary

Reached Wimbledon semifinals last year

Rohan Bopanna and Ebden defeated their Netherlands rivals 7-5, 6-4 in one hour and 11 minutes in a rain-interrupted first-round match on Wednesday. Australian Open champion pair will face Germany's Hendrik Jebens and Constantin Frantzen in the second round. 

Rohan Bopanna had also reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam of the season, last year. Already champions at the Australian Open and in Miami this year, Bopanna and Ebden are aiming for their fifth team title. Ebden won the 2022 Wimbledon crown alongside countryman Max Purcell.

Sumit Nagal's journey ends

Earlier on Wednesday, India's Sumit Nagal and his Serbian partner Dusan Lajovic had to face defeat against Spain's Pedro Martinez and Jaume Munar in the first round. Martínez and Munar won the match 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and seven minutes.

Balaji and Yuki will start their campaign

N Sriram Balaji and Yuki Bhambri will also represent India in the first round of men's doubles. Balaji has paired up with Britain's Luke Johnson. The duo will face the fourth-seeded pair of Mate Pavic of Serbia and Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador on Thursday.

On the other hand, Yuki and Albano Olivetti of France will face the Kazakhstan pair of Alexander Bublik and Alexander Shevchenko.

World No. 4 doubles tennis player Rohan Bopanna secured an automatic quota place for the Paris Olympics 2024 through his ATP rankings in doubles on Tuesday.

Also Read: Rohan Bopanna chooses N Sriram Balaji as his partner for the Paris Olympics 2024

Bopanna maintained his position in top 10

Rohan Bopanna represented India in the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics but missed out on a place at the Tokyo Olympics. He secured the quota for India by maintaining his position in the top 10 in the doubles rankings since November last year. 

The 44-year-old Rohan Bopanna won the Australian Open Grand Slam at the beginning of the year and reached the semi-finals of the French Open last week.

Rohan Bopanna will reportedly partner with world no 67 Sriram Balaji for the 2024 Olympics.

Each country can achieve a maximum of four quotas

64 players each will participate in the men's and women's singles events at Paris 2024. According to the ATP rankings released on June 10, the top 56 men's singles players have secured quotas for their respective countries. However, each country can achieve a maximum of four quotas.

The men's and women's doubles draw at Paris 2024 will consist of 32 teams, with one team being a pair of athletes from the same country, i.e. a maximum of two teams from each country.

The tennis qualification window for Paris 2024 ended on Monday. National Olympic Committees have until June 19 to confirm the use of their quota.

Sumit Nagal made the cut a day before

India's Sumit Nagal has also secured quota places for the Paris Games a day before. Nagal made the cut-off after rising 18 places in the singles rankings last week, according to Olympics.com, making him the last player to earn a quota through the world rankings.

Also Read: Paris Olympics 2024: Indian athletes who qualified for the Paris 2024

Nagal, who was ranked 95th last week, achieved his career-high ranking of 77th after winning the ATP Challenger title at the Heilbronn Challenger Cup in Germany on Sunday. He defeated Switzerland's world number 184 Alexander Ritschard 6-1, 6-7, 6-3 to clinch the title.

Although Nagal is ranked 77th, he is last among the eligible players to get quota through world rankings.