Paralympics: Bhavina storms into table tennis final, one step away from gold

Bengaluru, August 28: India's paddler Bhavina Patel is one step away from gold after winning her women's singles class 4 semifinal against China's Zhang Miao in the Paralympics 2020 Games in Tokyo.

The ace Indian, who had already assured the country its first historic medal in table tennis by virtue of having reached the semifinals, continued her impressive run as she earned a hard-fought 3-2 (7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 11-8) win against her Chinese opponent.

Bhavina will eye gold in the final to be held on Sunday (August 29) where she takes on China's world No.1 paddler Zhou Ying at 7.15 am IST.

Now we #GoForGold!!! @BhavinaPatel6 is through to the FINALS #TableTennis 🏓🔥🔥🔥🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 After beating World no. 3 #CHN today, #BhavinaPatel will be seen in #Tokyo2020 #Paralympics FINALS tomorrow morning!!! pic.twitter.com/V8hMgst5wi

— Paralympic India 🇮🇳 #Cheer4India 🏅 #Praise4Para (@ParalympicIndia) August 28, 2021

The 34-year-old was in her elements as she beat her world no. 3 Chinese opponent n the semifinal showdown that lasted 34 minutes.

Competing in her maiden Paralympic Gamess, Bhavina lost the opening game in a tight contest. But, she made a strong recovery, claiming the next two games.

In the fourth game, Zhang showed her class not giving Bhavina the bragging rights just yet as the match headed into the decider.

Our champ @BhavinaPatel6 makes it to the final and we could not be happier!!

Bhavina will take on #CHN Ying Zhou in the Gold medal match tomorrow, 29 August at 7:15 AM (IST)

Stay tuned & continue to cheer her on with #Cheer4India messages#Praise4Para #Paralympics pic.twitter.com/6nzYRQUiSX

— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) August 28, 2021

In the deciding fifth game, Bhavina took a time out after which she notched up the win.

Earlier in the quarterfinal on Friday (August 27), Bhavina had defeated 2016 Rio Paralympics gold winner and world number two Borislava Peric Rankovic of Serbia to clinch a medal and script history.

As since there is no bronze-medal play-off in Tokyo Paralympics table tennis, both losing semi-finalists were already guaranteed a bronze.

"I could win my match today due to the support of the people of India. Please keep supporting me so that I can win my semifinal match," Bhavina had said after the quarterfinals.

Now she has gone one step further and and is just one stepy away from a historic gold medal.

The Paralmpics 2020 Games whcih was rescheduled to this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic just like the Summer Olympics, will go on in the Japanese capital till September 5.