Bhavinaben Patel emerged the first Indian ever to reach the table tennis finals in the Paralympics, after a 3-2 win over China's Miao Zhang in Tokyo. The score stood 7-11 11-7 11-4 9-11 11-8. Patel's next opponent for the gold will be Ying Zhou, the world number one from China.
On Friday, Patel had secured a medal after she entered the semifinals with a stunning straight-game win over world number five Borislava Peric Rankovic of Serbia.
Earlier in the day, she had beaten Joyce de Oliveira of Brazil 12-10 13-11 11-6 in Round of 16 to become the first Indian table tennis player to reach the quarterfinals in the Paralympics. 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.
She had entered the knock-out round after winning one match and losing the other group game.
-Inputs from PTI