Tokyo Paralympics 2020: Bhavina Patel clinches historic silver medal in table tennis

Indian Para table tennis player Bhavina Patel brings home silver medal after losing out to China's Zhou Ying in Tokyo Paralympics 2020 Women's Singles class 4 category final.

Both the contestants were evenly matched when the game started but it was Zhou Ying who marched ahead and even though Patel did make a comeback towards the end, it was too late as the Chinese paddler won the first game 1-0 with 11-7 margin.

Nonetheless. Bhavina looked to keep her hopes alive with a dominant performance in the second game where she went down 5-11 which meant that she had to win the third game in order to keep her gold medal dreams alive.  The star Indian paddler looked to dominate but Ying was too good for her and in the end, clinched the gold medal with a 3-0 scoreline.

Tokyo Paralympics 2020: Bhavina Patel's road to glory

It all started on Friday when Bhavina Hasmukhbhai Patel became the first Indian to enter the semi-final of the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics 2020 with a dominating win over World Number 2 Borislava Rankovic of Serbia in the women's singles Class 4 event. With the win in the quarter-final, Bhavinaben Patel also ensured India its first medal at the Tokyo Paralympics.

Bhavina Patel continued her outstanding run on Saturday during her semis clash against China's Miao Zhang where she came out on top with a 3-2 win to qualify for the gold medal match. 

The Indian paddler staged a brilliant comeback despite going down in the first game as the second set ended at 5-5. However, she showcased a dominant performance in Game 3 with a 5-1 scoreline. The Indian paddler made things even tougher for her Chinese counterpart 3-2 in Game 4 as the contest went into the decider. In the fifth and final set, it was Bhavina Patel once again who was dominant right from the word 'Go' as Miao Zhang had no answers and ended up losing the set and the match.

Tokyo Paralympics 2020: A look at Bhavina Patel's table tennis career so far

World no.8 Bhavinaben Hasmukhbhai Patel is a very accomplished para-athlete and boasts of having won multiple championships. In her 13-year career so far, the paddler has competed in 28 tournaments and has won 26 of them. They include five gold, 13 silver, and, eight bronze medals respectively. 

 In 2013, the then promising paddler from Mehsana won India's first-ever silver medal in the Asian Regional Championships. She competed in international tournaments all over the world, including Jordan, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Germany, Indonesia, Slovenia, Thailand, Spain, the Netherlands, and Egypt, but she never won a gold medal. At the 2019 International Para Table Tennis Championships in Bangkok, Thailand, the player won her first gold medal in singles. 

Bhavina Patel had made her international debut in 2009 at Jordan.