Top seeds Bhagat, Joshi reach quarter-finals of Para Badminton World C’ships

TOKYO: Top seeds and title favourites Pramod Bhagat and Manasi Joshi topped their respective groups and advanced to the quarter-finals of the ongoing BWF Para Badminton World Championships 2022 in Tokyo on Wednesday.

After opening their title defence on a strong note in SL3 (Standing Lower severe impairment) events on Tuesday, Bhagat made light work of England’s William Smith 21-5, 21-3, while Joshi saw off France’s Catherine Naudin 21-6, 21-4 to top her group on the day.

Bhagat, who also won his men’s doubles SL3-SL4 with Manoj Sarkar on the day, is expected to face Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara, the Paralympic bronze medallist in mixed doubles category, in the semi-finals.

“It feels nice to be back here and play in Tokyo after the Paralympics. I have some great memories here, so I am confident of doing well in these courts. I hope I can defend my double titles here,” said Bhagat who highlighted that he faced Fujihara in the semis of Tokyo 2020 as well.

Expectedly, Paralympic bronze medallist Sarkar and Nitesh Kumar, double gold medallist at the Nationals, have also advanced and will be facing France’s Mathieu Thomas and England’s William Smith, respectively.

Nerve-wrecking doubles

“I was a bit worried before the match as I had lost to my opponent before at the Asian Para Games. Once I started playing, I got the momentum,” said Sarkar who defeated Maman Nurjaman 21-13, 21-10 in straight games.

However, the highlight of the day was SL3-SU5 doubles match between Suhas Yathiraj and Umesh Vikram Kumar and English pair of Bobby Griffin and William Smith which was an edge of the seat encounter with the scores reading 21-13, 29-27 in India’s favour.

“We were leading quite a few times in the second times set. But we made many errors in judgments. But the good thing is that we could held our nerves in the end,” said Yathiraj who admitted that he was more worried about playing a seeded player in his men’s singles SL4 group game against Germany’s Marcel Adams, whom he eventually defeated 21-15, 21-7.

“After the group stage, the matches will get more competitive. So, we must be ready for everything. I am looking forward to both my singles and doubles matches.”

Nagar, Kadam, Parmar, Kaur advance too

In other SL4 (Standing Lower limb impairment minor) events, second seed Sukant Kadam finished his group with a 21-9, 21-10 win over Van Thuong Nguyen. “There is only one target which is to come back with the gold medal and make India proud,” said Kadam.

Meanwhile, Paralympic gold medallist Krishna Nagar had an easy opponent in Korea’s Lee Daesung winning his second group game 21-11, 21-17 and will face France’s Fabien Morat in last 16 on Thursday.

In SU5 (Standing Upper limb impairments) class, youngsters Chirag Baretha and Ruthick Ragupathi also entered the pre-quarter-finals.

In women’s events, Parul Parmar and Mandeep Kaur all topped their respective groups in women’s singles SL3 and are ready for their Elimination maches.

Meanwhile, world no. 1 Manisha Ramadass and Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan advanced to the quarter-finals in the women’s singles SU5 and SH6 events.

The wheelchair category also saw several Indians advancing with Prem Kumar Ale, Shashank Kumar and Abu Hubaida all making it to the last 16 stage.

India is fielding the biggest ever contingent of 38 para shuttlers at the World Championships in Tokyo which will culminate on Sunday.