Table Tennis: Bhavinaben storms into quarterfinals in Tokyo Paralympics
Paddler Bhavinaben reached the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Paralympics on Friday, beating Brazil's Joyce de Oliviera in straight games. She defeated the Brazilian 12-10 13-11 11-6 to book a place in the final-eight.
She will now meet Serbia's Borislava Peric, who is the defending champion at the Paralympics. She won two medals in the Rio 2016 edition of the Games, which included a singles gold and a silver medal in the team event.
She has also won a singles silver medal in the London edition in 2012.
Earlier, the 34-year-old Indian had dispatched Great Britain's Megan Shackleton, the world world no.9, 11-7 9-11 17-15 13-11 in a contest that lasted 41 minutes in the group game which secured a berth in the round-of-16.
Athletes in Class 4 category have fair sitting balance and fully functional arms and hands. Their impairment may be due to a lower spinal-cord lesion or cerebral palsy.
The other Indian in the fray, Sonalben Manubhai Patel had ended her campaign after losing 12-10 5-11 3-11 9-11 to MG Lee of Korea in her second women's singles Class 3 group match.
She had lost her first group match on Wednesday.
