Tokyo: World No.1 Indian shuttler Pramod Bhagat advanced to the Tokyo Paralympics semifinals with a straight-game victory over Ukraine’s Oleksandr Chyrkov on Thursday. The Indian won by a score of 21-12, 21-9 in just 26 minutes in the SL3 category and is just a win away from a medal.
Pramod dominated the first game, winning five consecutive points maintaining the widest margin of a 9-point lead. Chyrkov barely had any response to Pramod’s sharp returns to the edges. The Indian continued to show his dominance in the second game as he was up by 11-2 at the interval.
In just 10 minutes, Pramod was up by a 10 points lead of 16-6. The points kept on piling up as Pramod registered a comfortable 12 point lead at 19-7. Chyrkov earned one point, but the game was pretty well under Pramod’s control, who won it 21-9.
Earlier, Pramod Bhagat defeated his Indian compatriot Manoj Sarkar 21-10, 21-23, 21-9 in the first group stage match on Wednesday. Pramod along with Palak Kohli had lost to French opponents Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noel 9-21, 21-15, 19-21 in a mixed doubles SL3-SU5 Group B opener. They will face a Thailand pair in their second group B encounter on September 3.
Suhas Yathiraj and Tarun Dhillon, on the other hand, made a strong start to their campaign in the men’s singles SL4 class. In the Group A game, the 38-year-old Yathiraj defeated Germany’s Jan Niklas Pott 21-9, 21-3 in just 19 minutes.
Dhillon, 27, didn’t break a sweat either, defeating Thailand’s Siripong Teamarrom 21-7, 21-13 in a 23-minute Group B encounter. Yathiraj will face Hary Susanto of Indonesia next, while Dhillon will face Korea’s Shin Kyung Hwan on Friday.
Meanwhile, Palak Kohli and her partner Parul Parmar lost 7-21, 5-21 to second-seeded Chinese pair Cheng Hefang and Ma Huihui in a Group B women’s doubles SL3-SU5 class match. Kohli also lost against Ayako Suzuki of Japan in a Group A women’s singles class SU5 match 4-21, 7-21.
Parmar also lost her women’s singles SL4 Group match to China’s Hefang Chang on Thursday. Chang defeated Parul 21-8, 21-2 in just 18 minutes to claim the victory.
Krishna Nagar won a men’s singles SH6 Group B match against Malaysia’s Didin Taresoh 22-20, 21-10 on Thursday to start his Tokyo Paralympics campaign. Krishna’s next group match comes on Friday when he will face G. V. Tavares of Brazil.
