Bhavina Hasmukhbhai Patel clinched a thrilling victory against Megan Shackleton of Great Britain in the women’s singles class 4 round of table tennis at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics.
Bhavina overcame her opening match defeat against the top-ranked Chinese Ying Zhou to pull off an easy win against Megan Shackleton 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 17-15, 13-11)- at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Tokyo.
Bhavina Patel took the first game 11-7 after a neck-to-neck battle in the initial stages.
After a close fight in the second game. Bhavina and Megan were tied for 6-6. The Brit made a comeback to take the lead and sealed the game with consecutive points at 11-9.
Megan took an early lead in the third game after which Bhavina fought back. Megan took an important lead at 9-8 but failed to capitalize on it. Bhavina bagged consecutive points to win the tiebreaker 17-15.
Megan was ahead in the fourth game with a three-point lead. However, Bhavina fought back yet again to win the final game 13-11.
India's Bhavinaben Patel went down to China's Ying Zhou 0-3 (3-11, 9-11, 2-11) in the first round match of the Group A women's individual table tennis C4 division on Wednesday. The Indian table tennis ace lost in straight games. Bhavinaben was up against a mighty opponent in Zhou.
In her 13-year long career, Bhavina has competed in nearly 28 tournaments. She has bagged a total of five gold, 13 silver, and eight bronze medals respectively.
Bhavina Patel's Compatriot Sonalben's match details:
Bhavina's compatriot Sonalben Manubhai Patel will be in action later in the day. She will be up against South Korea's Mi Gyu Lee on Thursday in her second Group D match at 17:10pm (IST).
Indian paddler Sonalben Manubhai Patel suffered a 3-2 defeat against China's Qian Li in her opening Group D match in the women's singles - class 3 on Wednesday.
Also read: 2021 Paralympics: Indian paddlers Sonalben and Bhavina began their Paralympics campaign with defeat