India's focus on day eight will be centered around tennis mixed doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna who are to take on the US pair of Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram, on Saturday night, in the semi-finals at the Rio Olympics.
India's sagging fortunes in the Games got a major boost with Sania and Bopanna cruising into the mixed doubles semis in tennis on day seven of competitions.
Sania and Bopanna subdued Britain's Andy Murray and Heather Watson with remarkable ease to breeze into the mixed doubles semifinals with a 6-4, 6-4 win in just 67 minutes.
One more victory on Saturday night, over US star Venus and her Indian-origin partner Rajeev in the semis will ensure India a silver medal while a defeat would give Sania and Bopanna a chance to fight for the bronze.
Women steeplechasers Lalita Babar and Sudha Singh, along with woman quarter miler Nirmala Sheoran will be striving to advance from preliminaries.
The men's hockey team, already assured of a berth in the quarter-finals, led twice against lowly Canada before allowing their rivals to bounce back and earn a 2-2 draw in their
concluding pool game.
They will meet Group A champions Belgium in the quarter-finals.
