Young Palak Kohli also defeated Turkey’s Zehra Baglar in her second women’s singles match of Group A.
Indian shuttlers Suhas Yathiraj, Tarun Dhillon and Krishna Nagar started their men’s singles campaign with a stellar performance at the Tokyo Paralympics badminton event here on Thursday.
Suhas and Tarun registered easy victories over Germany’s Jan Niklas Pot and Thailand’s Siripong Timarom in the SL4 category, while second seed Krishna defeated Malaysia’s Taresoh Didin in the SH6 category.
Young Palak Kohli also defeated Turkey’s Zehra Baglar in her second women’s singles match of Group A. Suhas, 38, took just 19 minutes to beat Pot 21-9, 21-3 in a one-sided Group A clash, while Tarun, 27, also took Team Rome 21-7, 21- Didn’t break a sweat after beating 13.
In a 33-minute Group B match, Krishna registered a 22-20 21-10 win over Didin. Suhas will face Indonesia’s Harry Susanto and top seed Lucas Mazur of France on Friday, while second seed Tarun will face Korea’s Shin Kyung Hwan and Indonesia’s Freddy Setiawan.
The 22-year-old will take on Brazil’s Vitor Gonçalves Tavares on Friday. Suhas, who has a fractured ankle, has been at the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19 menace as the district magistrate of Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddh Nagar.
Tarun, on the other hand, suffered a serious knee injury while playing football at the age of eight, as a result of which the movement of the knee was limited. He is the current world number 2 and a two-time former world champion. Krishna, who has a short stature, is the second world number in SH6. He has won bronze and silver in singles and doubles at the 2019 World Championships.
In the SL classification, individuals with standing/lower limb impairment/severe are allowed to compete, while SU refers to athletes with upper limb impairment.
In the women’s singles SU5 category, Kohli defeated Zehra 21-12 21-18 in 27 minutes. She lost her first match to Ayako Suzuki of Japan.
Earlier in the day, 19-year-old Kohli and his partner 48-year-old Parul Parmar lost 7-21 5-21 to second seed Chinese pair of Cheng Hefang and Ma Huihui in a Group B women’s doubles SL3-SU5 class match. . The Indian pair will take on French pair of Lenig Morin and Faustin Noel on Friday.
Parmar, competing in the SL3 category, was no match for Cheng Hefang of China, losing 8-21, 2-21 in 18 minutes in a women’s singles Group D match at the Yoyogi National Stadium here. Parmar will meet Germany’s Katrin Seibert later in the day.
Suhas, who qualified after the game’s governing body BWF gave India a bipartisan quota, said he is looking forward to his match against top seed and title favorite Mazur on Friday.
“We’re both looking forward to it. We’ve gone face-to-face on the circuit leading up to the Paralympics and I’ve lost a few against him and won a few. It’s going to be a good challenge,” he said.
“Because of his height, his strokes come from a certain depth that you’re not usually used to, but I’ve trained specially for that. I’m sure he’ll train specifically for me too.”
Suhas said that he has specially trained for his match against Mazur.
“My coach used to stand on a chair. I had to be mobile. My coaches would first shuttle in one place, and then the other. A real match is different, but you do the best you can ,” They said .
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