Tokyo Paralympics: Manoj Sarkar wins bronze in men's singles badminton

Indian para badminton player Manoj Sarkar beats Japan's Daisuke Fujihara 22-20, 21-13 to win the bronze medal in the of Men's Singles SL 3 badminton category on Saturday at the Tokyo Paralympics.

The world no. 3 in his category, Sarkar took the first point in Game 1, however, Fujihara closed in and picked up on his lead at 4-1. Sarkar picked up successive points to equalise at 5-5 and then started building a lead. The Indian maintained a three-point lead at 11-8 during the interval. He paced up his performance but Fujihara made a good comeback in the attempt at equalising at 19-19. He raced past Manoj at 20-19 and earned one game point. Manoj levelled at 20-20 and then went on to win the first game at 22-20 in 27 minutes.

The second game began with a 2-2 tie and Manoj raced past Fujihara at 5-2. At intervals, Manoj had a five-point lead of 11-6. He went to establish a 16-8 lead over the Japanese and it seemed quite easy for him to win the match. He eventually pocketed the game 21-13 to win the match.