Bhavinaben Patel had created history on Friday by becoming the first ever Indian Table Tennis player to have entered the semi-finals of a Paralympic games. The female table tennis star defeated the defending Olympic champion, Peric Rankovic in straight games 3-0 with scores of 11-5, 11-6 and 11-7.
Bhavinaben’s victory over Rankovic means that India is assured a medal because there is no Bronze medal playoff in Tokyo. Thus she will become the first player out of the 54 Indian athletes to win a media in the Tokyo Paralympics. Going forward, Patel went on head to head against Zhang Miao in the semi-finals of the tournament today at 6 a.m ist.
She continued her dream run in the Tokyo Paralympics by creating a major upset in the semi finals. Owing to the fact, she defeated the world number 2 in the semi-finals of the table tennis event. In a hard fought match, Bhavinaben came from a set down to win the match 3-2 against Zhang Miao of China.
Getting into details of the Semi-Finals clash, Bhavina didn’t get off a good start as she lost the first set 7-11 to Zhang Miao. However, she equalised the game by winning the second set 11-7. Further, she won the third set quite easily with the score of 11-4 and she was just one game way of getting into the finals. Although the World’s number 2 ranked player made things difficult by winning the fourth set.
In the end, the Indian paddler displayed immense nerves and played a great fourth game to win the match 11-8. The scores of the match were 7-11, 11-7,11-4, 9-11 and 11-8. As a result, she will now face China’s Ying Zhao in the Gold Medal match tomorrow, 29th August at 7:15 a.m.
Before taking a looking at Bhavinaben Patel’s post-match comments, let’s look at the reaction of our honorary prime minister on Twitter following her win in the semi-finals.
Bhavinaben Patel has her eyes set on the Gold Medal as she takes on World Number 1 Ying Zhao
After winning against Zhang Miao , Bhavinaben Patel revealed that focusing on the mental aspect of the game helped her secure the win. “My schedule used to start at 4am and I used to focus more on my mind, through meditation and yoga I learnt to keep myself calm. During matches, sometimes we make mistakes in a hurry and we lose points but I could control my thoughts today,” she said.
She further thanked people who helped her financially and also gave credit to her coaches. “I want to thank the coaches, who taught me tricks and technique because of them I have been able to reach here.”
“When a player doesn’t get financial support, it becomes difficult to move ahead in sport because the expenses of playing tournaments are so huge and it is difficult to afford for a middle class family but SAI, TOPS, PCI, government, OGQ, Blind People’s Association, my family, all have supported me.”
Regardless of what happens in the Finals against the world number 1. Indians will be extremely proud of Bhavinaben Patel’s performance in the Tokyo Paralympics.
Also Read: Here are all the athletes who will be representing India at the Tokyo Paralympics
