World No 1 Pramod Bhagat sailed into the men’s singles semifinals after beating Ukraine’s Oleksandr Chyrkov in his second group A match of the Tokyo Paralympics badminton event on Thursday as the country’s shuttlers expectedly produced strong performances.
The 33-year-old Bhagat, also a reigning world champion, saw off Chyrkob 21-12, 21-9 in 26 minutes to top his group and enter the last four in class SL3.
“I was in the groove today and played really well. Oleksandr Chyrkov is a good player and played some good strokes in the match. I am very happy that I have reached the semi-finals,” Bhagat said.
“Things are going to be tough from here as the knock out stages start. My focus is on one match at a time and also the last league game of the mixed doubles which is a do-or-die situation for us.”
Bhagat and Palak Kohli will play Siripong Teamarrom and Nipada Saensupa in mixed doubles class SL3-SU5 on Friday.
Other Indian shuttlers, including Suhas Yathiraj, Tarun Dhillon and Krishna Nagar also had a good day in office as they opened their men’s singles campaign impressively.
While Suhas and Tarun notched up easy victories over Germany’s Jan Niklas Pott and Thailand’s Siripong Teamarrom in SL4 class respectively, second seed Krishna outwitted Malaysia’s Taresoh Didin in SH6 class.
Young Palak also overcame Turkey’s Zehra Baglar in her second women’s singles match of group A.
The 38-year-old Suhas took just 19 minutes to see off Pott 21-9, 21-3 in a lopsided group A clash, while Tarun, 27, too didn’t break a sweat, beating Teamarrom 21-7, 21-13 in a group B match that lasted 23 minutes.
Krishna then prevailed 22-20, 21-10 over Didin in a 33-minute group B match.
In women’s singles SU5 class, Kohli beat Zehra 21-12, 21-18 in 27 minutes. She had lost her opening match to Japan’s Ayako Suzuki.
Earlier in the day, the 19-year-old Kohli and her partner Parul Parmar, 48, went down 7-21, 5-21 to second seeded Chinese pair of Cheng Hefang and Ma Huihui in a group B women’s doubles SL3-SU5 class match.