Tokyo Indian paddler Bhavina Patel scripted history as she advanced to the semi-finals on Friday with a dominating win over World Number 2 Borislava Rankovic of Serbia in the women’s singles Class 4 event.
The 34-year-old Indian won 11-5, 11-6, 11-7 against her Serbian opponent. Her victory had earned her a medal at the main event, which will be India’s first at the ongoing Paralympics.
Bhavina got off to a solid start, winning the first game 11-5 in only five minutes. In the second set, she maintained her momentum and won 11-6. She rode her incredible momentum into the third set, where she encountered no resistance from the Serbian and completed the match with an 11-7 triumph.
Bhavina advanced for the Tokyo Paralympics quarter-finals earlier on Friday with a thrilling 3-0 victory over Joyce de Oliviera of Brazil in the women’s singles Class 4 Round of 16 match.
Bhavina clinched the match and moved to the next round by defeating Joyce 3-0 (12-10, 13-11, 11-6) in three sets.
In the second game, the 34-year-old Indian athlete was down 2-0 but came back to tie the score at 10-10 and eventually ace it to take a 2-0 lead in the match. She came back from a 7-10 deficit to win the game 13-11 by saving all three game points.
However, in the third game, the Brazilian grabbed an early three-point lead, Bhavina stormed through the rest of the game to win 11-6.
After compatriot Sonalben Manubhai Patel lost both of her group matches on Thursday, she is the only Indian left in the table tennis competition.
