Tokyo: Indian paddlers were disappointed on the first day of the Tokyo Olympics as both Sonal Patel and Bhavina Patel lost their opening women’s singles games on Wednesday. They will get one more chance to revive their fortunes and maybe an entry into the next round.
In the women’s singles Class 3 Group D encounter, Sonalben lost to World No.4 Li Qian of China 11-9, 3-11, 17-15, 7-11, 4-11. The 33-year-old gave India a perfect start winning the first game in just six minutes. However, the Rio Paralympics silver medallist Chinese made a stunning comeback in the second to level the scores.
The third game was a neck-to-neck contest as both Sonalben and Li displayed their best but the Indian prevailed in a marathon game to regain the lead. The match took a turn when the Chinese paddler regained control and won the next two games to cap off with a victory.
Day 1 #TableTennis @sonup123 is playing for #IND at the @Paralympics! #Praise4Para #Tokyo2020@Media_SAI @ianuragthakur pic.twitter.com/CoAiztzPMA
— Paralympic India 🇮🇳 #Cheer4India 🏅 #Praise4Para (@ParalympicIndia) August 25, 2021
World No. 19 Sonalben will next play South Korea’s Mi Gyu Lee in her final group game on Thursday. Meanwhile, competing in the women’s Class 4 Group A tie, World No.8 Bhavina lost to Chinese Ying Zhou 3-11, 9-11, 2-11.
Despite the 34-year-old India’s best efforts, Bhavina was no match for the two-time Paralympics medallist as Zhou was far more superior and dominated throughout the match. Bhavina will next play Great Britain’s Megan Shackleton in her final group encounter on Thursday.
