Rhodium(I)-catalyzed asymmetric ring-opening (ARO) reaction of strained bicyclic alkenes has been demonstrated as a highly efficient and enantioselective process for generating a functionalized dihydronaphthalene core. [1] Our group has previously reported that chiral Rh I complexes catalyze ring opening of oxa-and azabicyclic alkenes with soft nucleophiles such as alcohols, phenols, thiols, amines, anilines, malonates and carboxylates in high yield and enantioselectivity. [2] The products are generated by an S N 2' nucleophilic displacement of the bridgehead leaving group with inversion to give the 1,2trans product as a single regio-and diastereomer. This method has been recently demonstrated as a viable strategy for synthesizing bioactive aminotetralins rotigotine and (S)-8-OH-DPAT. [3] Although various heteroatom nucleophiles have been employed in ARO, the use of water-the simplest nucleophile-has not been demonstrated. Based on previous studies, [2] water-induced ARO of oxabenzonorbornadiene 1 a should yield chiral trans-1,2-diol 2 a. Instead, we isolated the unexpected 2-hydroxy-1-tetralone product 3 a exclusively in the presence of catalytic [Rh(cod)Cl] 2 /(R,S)-PPF-PtBu 2 (cod = cyclooctadiene) in aqueous THF [4] (Scheme 1). Reaction at 25 8C afforded enantio-enriched 3 a (enantiomeric ratio, e.r. = 33:67), a higher reaction temperature (50 or 80 8C) caused a significant decrease in enantioselectivity. To the best of our knowledge, the formation of tetralone products such as 3 a is unprecedented in ARO reactions. We subsequently investigated the effects of ligand, catalyst loading, concentration, and reaction temperature (Table 1).No reaction took place without added ligand (entry 1). Reaction at 25 8C (0.2 m concentration) with 5 mol % [Rh-(cod)Cl] 2 and 10 mol % (R,S)-PPF-PtBu 2 gave tetralone product 3 a in 79 % yield (entry 2, cf. Scheme 1). As the catalyst loading was decreased to 2 mol %, we obtained a mixture of diol 2 a (major product) and tetralone 3 a (entry 3). Reaction concentration also had a significant effect on product distribution. Lower concentration (0.1m) favored diol formation whereas higher concetration (0.4 m) favored tetralone formation (entries 4 and 5). It was found that Scheme 1. Formation of 2-hydroxy-1-tetralone 3 a by Rh I -catalyzed ARO of oxabenzonorbornadiene 1 a with water. Table 1: Combined effects of ligand, catalyst loading, concentration, and reaction temperature. Entry Ligand Catalyst loading [c] T [8C] t [h] 2 a [%] 3 a [%] 4 a [%]