The scratch partnership of Vinod Sharma and Alok Sadhu had a 59.9 per cent score. They added a 50.8 per cent score in the second session to end day one of the semifinals in position 28 with a healthy aggregate of 53.36 per cent.

JM Shah and Rajiv Khandelwal of Mumbai, and Prabhakar and Krishnan of Chennai are other two who show some promise of making the cut as well.

Shah and Khandelwal had poor 47.64 per cent (rank 115) in session one but recovered to position 92 with a 54.94 per cent in session two to aggregate 51.14 per cent.

Prabhakar and Krishnan made a good start with 53.36 per cent (rank 40) but dropped to rank 106, scoring a poor 45.95 per cent in session two. Their session average of 50.66 per cent.

Three other Indian pairs languish in the bottom half of the draw and will need huge scores in both sessions to make the cut. Atthe bottom of the Indian rankings are Tewari/Gupta of Delhi who had led the six Indian pairs into the semi-finals. Scoring 43.37 per cent and 45.97 per cent in two sessions, the Delhi pair find themselves in rank 207 at the end of day.

Ajay Khare and Vinay Desai of Mumbai improved from rank 190 45.3 per cent in session 1 to rank 165 in session 11 (50.04 per cent), but this rate of improvement will not be adequate to see them into the finals. Their cumulative scores are 47.66 per cent. Agarwal/Bandi from Indore are ranked 159 at the end of day 1, with 47.64 per cent in session 1 and 48.48 per cent in session 11 (48.07 per cent cumulative). Michael Rosenberg/Steve Weinstein from USA lead the field with 61.95 per cent. Followed by Poland's Pityr Gawrys/Marcin Lesniewski (59.62 per cent).

In the Louis Vuitton women's pairs where 119 pairs competed, the Indian challenge ended in the 1st elimination where the four Indian ladies' combinations finished in the bottom half of the draw.