India's Bhavina Patel made history at the Tokyo Paralympic Games on Friday by assuring herself of a medal in women's singles Class 4 table tennis event.
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.
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