Paralympics 2024
Paralympics 2024 Para-badminton: A mixed day for Indian Para-shuttlers
Suhas Yathiraj (SL4) had a winning start to the games while Manasi Joshi (SL3) conceded a close defeat in her group match.
Indian para-shuttlers commenced their journey at the Paris Paralympics on Thursday with the group stage action. It was a tough day for the Indian doubles team whereas it was a mixed outing in the singles category.
The day began with an all-Indin mixed doubles SL3-SU5 clash between the pairing of Nitesh Kumar and Tulasimathi Murugesan against the pair of Suhas Yathiraj and Palak Kohli. Nitesh and Tulasi won the tie in straight games 21-14, 21-17
However, Nitesh and Thulasimathi could not hold on to the momentum and conceded a defeat in their second group match against the Indonesian pairing of Hikmat Ramdani and Leani Ratri Oktila.
On the other hand, world no.1 Nitesh Kumar also opened his account in the singles category with a tight three-game (21-13, 18-21, 21-18) win over compatriot Manoj Sarkar in the first group match.
Meanwhile, in the women's singles SL3 category, India had a disappointing result as both Manasi Joshi and Mandeep Kaur lost their respective opening fixture of the group stage.
Manasi lost her match to the top-seeded Indonesian shuttler, Qonitah Ikhtiar Syakuroh whereas Mandeep suffered a straight-game defeat to the rising shuttler from Nigeria, Mariam Bolaji.
Four wins in SL4 Category
The SL4 category has been the story of the day as all four Indian shuttlers, 3 male and one female, opened their Paris Olympics campaign with a win.
Firstly, Sukant Kadam upset the fourth-seeded Malaysian player, Mohd Amin, in a close three-game (17-21, 21-15, 22-20) affair in his opening group encounter.
Then, Suhas Yathiraj and Tarun also won their first group matches against Hikmat Ramdani of Indonesia and Rogerio Jr. Xavier de Oliveira of Brazil respectively.
On the other hand, the lone Indian female participant in this category, Palak Kohli also managed a straight-game (21-12, 21-14) win over the French player, Milena Surreau.
In the SU5 category, the top-seeded Thulasimathi Murugesan and second-seeded Manisha Ramadass had a winning start to their campaign.
Thulasimathi found it an easy straight-game (21-9, 21-11) win against Rosa Efomo de Marco of Mexico whereas Manisha took three (8-21, 21-6, 21-19) to overcome the challenge of the home favorite Maud Lefort.
The last category of the day, i.e the SH6 category had a mixed day where the world no.1 Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan had a commanding (21-7, 21-8) victory over Jayci Simon of USA whereas Sivrajan Solimalai conceded a straight game (15-1, 17-21) defeat to Subhan of USA.
Earlier, Nithya and Sivarajan combining in the mixed doubles SH6 category, conceded a straight-game (21-23, 11-21) defeat to their opening group match against Miles Krajewski and Jayci Simon of USA.