The stakes are sky high for Indian boxing on day 10 of London Olympics

Day 10 at the London Olympics can become a red letter day for Indian boxing as two of the biggest names in the Indian contingent, Vijender Singh and MC Mary Kom, will have their quarterfinal bouts and a win here will ensure a medal for the duo. While Vijender will square up against Abbos Atoev from Uzbekistan in the men’s middleweight (75kg) category, Mary will face Tunisia’s Maroua Rahali in the women’s flyweight (51 kg) category at the South Excel Arena.

Both Vijender and Mary were touted as strong medal contenders before the beginning of the London games and are among a few Indian big names, who are still in the medal race.

Vijender, a bronze medal winner in the Beijing Olympics, has looked in good touch and made excellent use of his experience in the tournament so far. He began his campaign with a clinical 14-10 victory over Danabek Suzhanov of Kazakhstan in the opening round, before registering a narrow 16-15 win over Terell Gausha of USA.

The head to head record between Vijender and his quarterfinal opponent, Atoev, is 2-1 in favor of the Indian but the Uzbek’s only win has come at a grand stage, the semi finals of the World Championship in 2009. Atoev himself had a tough pre-quarterfinal, where he scrapped through to a 12-10 win over Romania’s Bogdan Juratoni.

Mary Kom, on the other hand, one of the few Boxers to participate in women’s boxing as it made its Olympic debut. The five time World Champion, true to the expectations, made a winning start. She defeated Karolina Michalczuk of Poland 19-14 in the round of 16 to enter the quarterfinals in the women’s flyweight category, at the South Excel Arena.

With no Indian male boxer in action, all the attention was fixed on Mary’s debut. The 29 year old Manipuri had a slow start but soon got into her own and dominated the proceedings.

Her opponent in the quarters is the ]less experienced Maroua Rahali, who is five years younger than the Indian. This will be the first match for Rahali in the 2012 Olympics as she got a bye in the first round. Even though Mary will start as favorite in the match, she can’t afford to take things lightly as complacency can become her biggest opponent in the ring.

Even though India has managed to bag three medals in the Games so far, the overall performance has been quite under whelming, considering the unprecedented hype that preceded the event. A strong performance and an assurance of two more medals by the two champion pugilists tomorrow can act as a much needed morale booster for the Indian contingent and trigger a medal rush in the final few days.