PHOTOS: India's highs and lows on Day 3 of the Games

Ace marksman Gagan Narang fired India to its first medal at the Olympic Games on Monday, winning the bronze in the men's 10m air rifle, but Beijing Games gold medallist Abhinav Bindra flopped, making an exit in the preliminaries.

Narang, who won four gold medals at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, stayed focused in the gripping eight-man finale to stave off the challenge of China's Wang Tao and end up third, with an aggregate of 701.1.

He thus made amends for his disappointing ninth place finish four years ago in Beijing.

The 29-year-old Hyderabad-based Punjab shooter placed behind Alin George Moldoveanu of Romania and world No 1 Niccolo Campriani of Italy, who tallied 702.1 and 701.5 to win gold and silver respectively.

While Narang celebrated his medal-winning feat that fetched the country its third medal in shooting and eighth individual overall at the Olympics, his teammate Bindra not only failed to climb the podium but also slipped to 16th place in the qualifiers with a tally of 594 out of 600 in a 47-man field.

Bindra, who created history and a frenzy four years ago at Beijing when he won the gold medal in the men's 10m air rifle event -- the first ever individual Olympic title won by an Indian -- performed way below par and made a tame exit.

The Indian men's doubles teams of Mahesh Bhupathi-Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes-Vishnu Vardahan won their opening matches at the Olympics.

Bhupathi-Bopanna, seeded seventh, went through several anxious moments before overcoming Max Miranyi and Alexander Bury of Belarus 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 8-6 in two hours and 26 minutes to enter the pre-quarter-finals.

They meet the French combination of Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet next.

Paes-Vardhan also had to go through the distance before beating Robin Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-2 in a match that lasted 112 minutes, at the Wimbledon.

The Indians will now take on Michael Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France in the second round.

Earlier, 304-ranked Vardhan fought hard but could not make the most of the lucky opportunity he got to compete in singles, losing 3-6, 2-6 to world No 77 Blaz Kavcic.

Vardhan made it to the main draw of the men's singles draw after Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew due to a right hamstring injury.

Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal had things her way while beating Belgium's Lianne Tan 21-4, 21-14 in her second round Group E match of the women's badminton competition at the Wembley Arena.

The 22-year-old world No 5, who is seeded fourth at the Games, needed only 24 minutes to complete formalities and make it to the pre-quarter-finals.

It was a losing start for India's men's hockey team, which went down 2-3 to the Netherlands in a Group B match.

Tenth-ranked India put up a plucky display but were down 0-2 at the end of the first-half, following goal from Robert van der Horst (20th minute) and Roderick Weusthof, margin nine minutes later, from a penalty-corner.

To their credit, though, they came out fighting after the change of ends and scored twice within a span of three minutes to draw abreast.

Dharanvir Singh (45th minute) scored India's first goal while Shivendra Singh made it 2-2 three minutes later.

However, Mink van der Weerden's penalty-corner conversion in the 51st gave the Dutchmen victory.

There were reverses on other fronts too, including a controversial defeat for boxer Sumit Sangwan, who lost 14-15 to Brazil's Yamaguchi Falcao Florentino in the first round of the men's light heavyweight boxing.

The verdict prompted the Indian team to lodge an official protest with the tournament organizers. The Indians felt Sangwan deserved to have got more points in the second round, which was controversially awarded to the Brazilian despite the Indian's clear domination.

Woman archer L Bombayla Devi was ousted from the women's individual event at the pre-quarter-final stage by Roman Aida of Mexico 6-2.

She had raised hopes of a medal after performing well to make it to the 16 by dispatching first round opponent Evangelia Psarra of Greece 6-4.