Bhavina Patel, the Indian paddler has helped India open its account at the Tokyo Paralympics. The ace paddler lost to her Chinese opponent Y Zhou. Y Zhou is ranked World Number 1 in the event and Bhavina is ranked World Number 12. Her performance at the Paralympics is one to remember! Bhavina performed out of her skin to beat all other higher-ranked opponents of her. The event in which Bhavina participated is called Women’s Class 4 Table Tennis. It is India’s first medal at the Tokyo Para campaign and many more are yet to come!
Bhavina Patel’s group matches: –
Bhavina was placed in Group A of the table tennis draw. Along with her were two other athletes. Shackleton from GBR and Zhou from China were the other two athletes. However, Bhavina’s campaign didn’t begin on a positive note. She lost her first game against Zhou! Bhavina then got her campaign back on track with a victory over the other opponent Shackleton. After the group stage was over, Bhavina was placed second with 3 points. Based on this result, she qualified along with Zhou.
Bhavina Patel’s knockout matches: –
Then the knockouts began. Bhavina was up against the Brazilian opposition. It was the round of 16. Joyce de Oliviera was not close to Bhavina. Bhavina in an emphatic fashion won the game in straight sets. She then moved on to the quarters. Her bout this time was against Croatian, Peric Rankovic. Peric too could not bear the fire from Bhavina’s paddle. Peric lost the game 3-0 and Bhavina moved on to the semis with absolute ease. The next resistance in Bhavina’s journey to glory was by Chinese paddler Zhang. Zhang was on top of her game. She initially was on the offense. But Bhavina kept her cool. She won the game 3-2 and moved on to the finals.
The final was once again against her group member Zhou Ying. Zhou Yong had previously beaten Bhavina in the Group Stage but that was passed. Bhavina was high on spirit. However, the spirit wasn’t enough to take her to ultimate glory. Bhavina tried her best but could only bag the silver.
