Paralympic TT: India's Bhavina storms into semis, in line for medal

Tokyo, Aug 27 (IANS) India's Bhavina Patel made history at the Tokyo Paralympic Games on Friday by getting into medal contention in Women's Singles Class 4 table tennis at the Tokyo Paralympics here on Friday.

Bhavina, the 34-year-old from Ahmedabad, stormed into the semifinals by upsetting Rio 2016 gold-medallist Borislava Peric Rankovic of Serbia in straight games 3-0 (11-5,11-6, 11-7) in just 19 minutes.

Bhavina is the first Indian woman table tennis player to reach the semi-finals in Paralympic Games. In the semifinals, she will meet China's Zhang Miao on Saturday.

Bhavina broke away from 3-3 in the first game to win the next six points and take a 9-3 lead before clinching the game 11-5.

In the second game, the Indian continued her domination and opened an early lead to go up 5-2. Borislava reduced the lead to 4-6 but Bhavina continued to win points with ease as she wrapped up the game 11-6. The Serbian put up a stiffer fight in the third game and tied the score at 5-5 but Bhavina won the next few points to go up 10-6. The Serb saved a match point but Bhavina could not be denied as she wrapped up a historic win.

Bhavina, who had qualified second in her Group A after losing to China's Zhou Ying, came back strongly to win two knockout round matches and get into medal position.