Tokyo Paralympics 2020: Bhavina Patel or Bhavinaben Patel has won the first-ever silver medal for Indian in table tennis at the Paralympic Games. She lost in the final of the table tennis finals and had to settle for a silver medal. She lost to China's ZHOU Ying by 7-11, 5-11, 6-11.
After losing the first game, Bhavina Patel could not stage a comeback as the Chinese player was dominating from the word go.
Zhou had also defeated Bhavina in the group stages but Bhavina came back strongly and played some exceptionally good matches to reach the final match. The Cinese player is the current world no. 1.
Patel, who plays in a wheelchair, lost the opening game in a tight contest. She plays in the class 4 category of table tennis.
In the quarterfinal on Friday, Patel had defeated 2016 Rio Paralympics gold winner and world number two Borislava Peric Rankovic of Serbia to clinch a medal and script history. She defeatedanother Chinese player Miao in the semi-finals to reach the Tokyo Paralympic Finals.
Patel started playing the sport 13 years ago at the Blind People's Association at Vastrapur area of Ahmedabad where she was a student of ITI for people with disabilities.
(with inuputs from PTI)