Bhavina Patel creates history Reaches In The Final Of Table Tennis Event In the Paralympics

New Delhi: India's  Bhavinaben Patel created history on the early morning of Saturday. She became the first Indian player to enter the final of the Paralympic Games Table Tennis competition. The 34-year-old Gujarat-based paddler defeated Zhang Miao of China in a hard-fought match of women’s singles Class 4 category by 3-2 (7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 11-8).  This match was started at 6.10 am and ended at 7.00 am. Sports lover has seen a brilliant performance by Bhavina. She was calm and fully focused. She will be a strong contender for the gold medal.

This semifinal has seen top-class skills of attack and defense. both the players were involved in long rallies. it was great to see a 24 strokes rally,  7 strokes. Bhavina has taken the lead of 5 games at the start of the 3rd and fourth games. Bhavina played with confidence, she lost the first game but came back strongly to win the second and third games. The fourth game has seen both matching points to point but Zhang won it and in the final game Bhavina was outstanding and put her all efforts to enter in the final.

Yesterday she defeated the defending champion and veteran Borislava Peric of Serbia 11-5 11-6 11-7 in just 18 minutes in their women’s singles quarterfinal Class 4 category. 

Competing in her maiden Paralympic Games, Bhavina has been given the best support by the Government in terms of international competitions, assistance towards procuring a Robot ‘Butterfly – Amicus Prime’ worth Rs 2.85 lakh, an Ottobock Wheelchair worth Rs 2.74 Lakh and a table. Other assistance included support towards Physiotherapy, Dietician, psychologist and coach fee to prepare for the Paralympic Games besides sport-specific equipment.

Earlier, Bhavina, who became the first Indian para-TT player to reach the pre-quarterfinals, beat Brazil’s Joyce de Oliveira also in straight games.