Tokyo: India’s shuttler duo of Pramod Bhagat and Palak Kohli qualified for the mixed doubles semifinals at the Tokyo Paralympics on Friday. Bhagat and Kohli defeated Siripong Teamarrom and Nipada Saensupa of Thailand 21-15, 21-19 in a 29-minute match to finish second in Group B.
The Indian duo will face Hary Susanto and Leani Ratri of Indonesia in the semifinals on Saturday. On the other hand, Suhas, Tarun Dhillon, and Manoj Sarkar all advanced to their respective men’s singles semifinals on a successful day for India.
World No.3 Suhas defeated Indonesia’s Hary Susanto 21-6, 21-12 in Group A tie while second seed Tarun rallied from a mid-game dip to beat Korea’s Shin Kyung Hwan 21-18, 15-21, 21-17 in Group B.
However, Suhas lost 15-21, 17-21 to France’s top-seed Lucas Mazur while Tarun lost 19-21, 9-21 to Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan in their final group matches later on the day. Suhas will compete against Setiawan in the semifinals. Tarun faces two-time world champ Mazur.
Manoj won 21-16, 21-9 over Oleksandr Chyrkov of Ukraine in the SL3 class to advance to the knockout stage after coming second in Group A behind World No.1 and compatriot Bhagat. On Saturday, Manoj will face Great Britain’s Daniel Bethell in the semifinals, while Bhagat will face Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara.
Another Indian, Krishna Nagar, seeded second in SH6, defeated Vitor Goncalves Tavares of Brazil 21-17, 21-14 in 27 minutes to win his second match in a row and top Group B.
Nagar, who advanced to the semifinals, will face Krysten Coombs of Great Britain in the knockout round.
Young Kohli, on the other hand, finished her women’s singles SU5 campaign with a quarterfinal loss against Kaede Kameyama of Japan 11-21, 15-21.
