AHMEDABAD: Bhavina Patel became one of the most decorated athletes of Gujarat on Saturday as she stormed into the final of women’s table tennis singles Class 4 event at Tokyo Paralympics by beating world number three Zhang Miao. As she continues her fairytale journey of perseverance in Tokyo, she has brought laurels to her state not exactly known for its athletics excellence.
Among the ecstatic fans was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tweeted, “Congratulations Bhavina Patel! You played excellently. The entire nation is praying for your success and will be cheering for you tomorrow.” The whole state is waiting with bated breath for Sunday’s blockbuster clash when Bhavina takes on world number one China’s Ying Zhou for the gold medal.
Nikul: Today we showed that Chinese are not invincible
If Bhavinaben Patel’s victory on Friday over the reigning Paralympic champion, Borislava Peric-Rankovic of Serbia, in the women’s singles Class 4 event was a display of pure domination, Saturday’s win over Rio Paralympic silver medallist and world number three Zhang Miao was all about staying calm and putting the opponent under pressure.
Early on Saturday morning, much before most of India had woken up, Bhavinaben produced a superlative performance to oust Zhang in five close-fought games at the Tokyo Paralympics and storm into the final. The 34-year-old Indian won 7-11,11-7,11-4, 9-11,11-8.
The victory gives the Indian not only a shot at a gold medal, but also to set the record straight against the world No.1, China’s Ying Zhou, who is the only player to have beaten her in Tokyo. In the opening group match, Zhou had beaten her 11-3, 11-9, 11-2.
After her win, Bhavina, who suffered disability in childhood, said: “I am just giving my 100%. I am mentally ready for the final.” Her husband Nikul Patel, who has accompanied her as part of the entourage, said, “The last two matches have been unbelievable. We can’t describe it in words. The way Bhavina put her opponents, their coaches under pressure has been incredible, and the cool manner in which she has played augurs well for the final.” He said that from the time a player picks up a table tennis racquet in India, it is fed into his/her mind that it is impossible to beat China, but Bhavina has shown that Chinese players can be defeated. “Today we showed that the Chinese table tennis players are not invincible. If we play to our strengths and keep calm under pressure, nothing is impossible,” he said, speaking of his wife’s feat.
Her coach Lallan Doshi also praised her resilience. “Even when she fell behind, she played well, trusted her shots and staged a comeback to win the match. The idea was to lock Zhang’s forehand. We succeeded in that and earned points through shots on backhand and forehand extreme. This victory will help her a lot in the final.” In the semifinal’s opening game, Bhavina raced to a 3-0 lead before the Zhang staged a comeback and pocketed the first game 11-7. The para paddler from Vadnagar in north Gujarat’s Mehsana district refused to get bogged down and staged a superb comeback to grab the second and third games 11-7 and 11-4 respectively. In a tight fourth game, which went down the wire, the Chinese para paddler held her nerve to pocket it 11-9. The decider witnessed a see-saw battle with the Indian forging ahead 5-0 before the Chinese fought back to level it at 7-7. Bhavina then raised her game and wrapped it up 11-8 to give herself a shot at the gold medal.
