On Thursday, Ace Indian paddler Bhavinaben Patel advanced to the Round of 16 in the women’s singles Class 4 table tennis event with a hard-fought 3-1 victory over Great Britain’s Megan Shackleton at the Tokyo Paralympics. The 34-year-old Indian dispatched Shackleton, the world no. 9, by scoring 11-7 9-11 17-15 13-11 in contest that lasted 41 minutes.
Competing in the match, the world no. 12 Indian began by clinching the first competition in just eight minutes but Shackleton made a strong recovery to take the second. With the fixture poised at 1-1, the two paddlers fought toe-to-toe in the next two games with the Indian player scoring on top at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
In the tournament on Wednesday, this was Patel’s first win as she blanked 0-3 by world number one Chinese paddler Zhou Ying in the opening round. As per News18, "Patel has three points from two games and moves to the knockout round along with table leader Ying."
In Class 4 category athletes have fair sitting balance with fully functional arms and hands. They may have impairment due to a lower spinal-cord lesion or cerebral palsy.