SHUTTLER PRAMOD BHAGAT BEATS OLEKSANDR IN STRAIGHT SETS, STORMS INTO SEMI-FINALS

Indian shuttler Pramod Bhagat on Thursday stormed into the semi-finals of the men’s singles SL3 after defeating Chyrkov Oleksandr of Ukraine in the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics.

Bhagat set the tone early in the game and defeated Oleksandr in two straight sets to seal the match in 26 minutes. Bhagat got off to a good start and maintained his lead to seal the first game 21-12. The Indian shuttler continued his fine form and won the second essay 21-19.

On Wednesday, in an all-Indian affair, Bhagat defeated Manoj Sarkar in the Group Play Stage – Group A. Earlier in the day, Krishna Nagar, Tarun Dhillon and Suhas L Yathiraj began their Tokyo Paralympics campaign with wins.

While, Krishna defeated Malaysia’s Didin Taresoh in straight sets and completed the men’s singles SH6 – Group B match in 32 minutes, Noida District Magistrate and para-badminton player Suhas defeated Jan Niklas Pott of Germany 21-9, 21-3.

Tarun also started the game on high and continued his winning momentum to complete the victory in 23 minutes after clinching the first two sets.Also, shuttler Palak Kohli won her second Group A match in women’s singles SU5. Palak defeated Zehra Baglar 2-0 (21-12, 21- 18). At the start of the day shuttlers, Palak and Parul Parmar had gone down 0-2 against second-seeded Huihui MA and Hefang Cheng of China in their first Group B match.