Table tennis Paralympic star Bhavinaben Patel won a history-making silver medal in the Paralymic Games, losing to China's Ying Zhou in the women's Class 4 games. The final score stood at 7-11 5-11 6-11 (0-3) loss to Zhou, who is the number one in the sport.
Patel had 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. 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, 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.
