Bhavina Patel failed to make her presence felt against Ying Zhou, losing in straight sets.
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Indian paddler Bhavina Patel suffered a defeat against Paralympic gold medalist China’s Ying Zhou in the Class 4 Group A round-robin match of the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics. After the scores were level at 1-1 in the first game, the Chinese quickly raced to a six-point lead at 7-1. Although the Indian showed some resistance and rallied better than the start of the game, the two-time Paralympic champion won the first game 11-3.
The World No1 continued from where she had left off in the first game, and took the first point against serve in the second game. Bhavina pulled one back and was playing much better in the second game, as she didn’t let the Chinese get away.
The Indian remained close to Ying with the score at 4-6. After a good run of points, Bhavina further levelled the score at 6-6. However, some good service points helped Zhou restore the lead at 8-6. Once again, the Indian fought back to level at 9-9 but in the end, lost the second game 9-11. It was a tightly contested game but the experienced Chinese kept her cool to come out on top.
Ying further showed her class to win the third game 11-2 and wrap up the match 3-0. The Chinese paddler didn’t allow the debutant any inroads into the contest. However, the Indian will be looking to come back stronger after a tough Paralympic debut in her next group match.
Earlier in the day, Indian paddler Sonal Patel nearly pulled off a big upset as she managed to take the match to the distance before losing 3-2 against Li Qian.
The Indian showed great fighting spirit to win two games and even win some of the crunch moments. Sonal won the third game and took a 2-1 lead after a marathon game that finished 17-15 in favour of the Indian.
11-9, 3-11, 17-15, 7-11, 4-11 read the final scoreline, reflecting Sonal’s grit and fighting spirit before the Chinese showed class to clinch the fifth game and the match.
Patel has plenty of takeaways from the match. She managed to hold her own against the World No 4 which is praiseworthy.
Sonal is still alive in the tournament and will be playing in her final round-robin match tomorrow. A win should be enough to see her through to the knockout stage, but other results of Group D matches might also have an impact on proceedings.
