Tokyo Paralympics 2020: Sonalben Patel loses to Lee Mi Gyu in Women's Table Tennis Singles

Sonalben Patel lost her second and final group game of the Tokyo Paralympics in the women's singles table tennis Class 3 category match. She missed out on a chance to make it to the knockout stages as she lost to Korea's Lee Mi Gyu 1-3 in her final Group D match on Thursday. The defeat meant she finished last in her three-person group.

Sonal did well to fight for a chance in the knockout stages as she won the first game of the match 12-10; however, in the second and third games, Lee Mi-Gyu was dominant as she won them 5-11, 3-11 and in the fourth set the Indian paddler looked to be on her way out when she was down 2-10 but she put on a brave fight as she saved 7 match points as she eventually went down fighting. The match ended with a scoreline of 12-10, 5-11, 3-11, 9-11.

Sonalben impresses in her debut match against World No. 4

She had also lost her first group stage Tokyo Paralympics 2020 Women’s Singles Class 3 category match on Wednesday. She went down to China's Q Li 2-3 in what was a thrilling contest. However, what really stood out here is that the Indian para paddler did not go down without a fight again.

Sonal Patel nearly pulled off a stunning winning during her Tokyo Olympics 2020 women’s singles Class 3 Group D clash against  Q Li. In fact, she got off to a brilliant start where she took the first game 11-9 in just six minutes. Nonetheless, her Chinese counterpart who is also the Rio Olympics silver medallist staged a remarkable comeback and convincingly won the second game 11-3. 

The third set turned out to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller as Sonal won it by a 17-15 margin. Sonal Patel then could not offer much resistance in the next two sets as Q Li, who clinched gold at the 2008 Beijing Games emerged triumphant by taking the final two sets  11-7 &  11-4  respectively.

Bhavina Patel loses first match of group stage

Meanwhile, Sonalben Patel's compatriot Bhavina Patel also lost her Tokyo Paralympics 2020 women's singles class 4 category match 0-3. After going down in the first game, Bhavinaben Patel tried her level best to stage a comeback in the second game picking up three consecutive points but to no avail, as Zhou Ying showcased an outstanding performance and never allowed the Indian paddler to dominate thereafter.

(Image Credits: @SAI_Media - Twitter)