Tokyo Paralympics: Bhavina Patel through to round of 16 in women’s singles TT
Bhavina Patel won her second group match to qualify for the knockout rounds while Sonal Patel was knocked out of the Tokyo Paralympics.
Indian table tennis player Bhavina Patel qualified for the round of 16 in the women’s singles class 4 category at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics on Thursday.
Table tennis players in each category are divided into groups of three playing each other in a round-robin format. The top-two from each group qualify for the elimination rounds.
In the morning session, Bhavina Patel beat Great Britain’s Megan Shackleton 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 17-15, 13-11) in Group A of the women’s singles Class 4. Bhavinaben Patel had lost to world No. 1 Zhou Ying of China on Wednesday.
Zhou Ying won both her matches to top Group A and Bhavina’s victory over Megan Shackleton gave her second place in the group, earning her qualification to the knockouts.
Bhavina Patel will face Brazil’s Joyce de Oliveira on Friday for a place in the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, Sonal Patel was knocked out of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics after she lost 1-3 (12-10, 5-11, 3-11, 9-11) to Lee Mi Gyu of South Korea in Group D of the women’s singles class 3 category.
Sonal Patel had earlier lost to Rio Paralympics silver-medallist Li Quan of China and her two losses meant that she finished bottom of Group D.
The players competing in the Class 3 and 4 segments are wheelchair-bound. Class 3 category players have no trunk control but bank on largely functional arms, while in class 4, the competitors have greater trunk control with fully functional arms and hands.