Tokyo: Indian table tennis player Bhavinaben Patel clinched the historic silver medal at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics after losing to world number one Chinese paddler Ying Zhou in the women's singles class 4 final, here on Sunday.
This is India's first medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
With this, Bhavinaben also became the first Indian table tennis player to win a medal at the Paralympics. She's also just the second Indian woman after Deepa Malik (silver in shot put in 2016) to clinch a medal at the Paralympics.
Patel's impressive run at her maiden Paralymic Games came to a disappointing end with a 7-11 5-11 6-11 loss to Zhou, a two-time gold medallist in the final, which lasted for just 19 minutes.
The 34-year-old Patel had earlier reached the final by defeating world no 3 China's Miao Zhang 7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 11-8 on Saturday,
In the quarterfinal on Friday, she had defeated world number two and defending champion Borislava Peric Rankovic of Serbia thus assuinge a medal for India and creating history.
The Indian paddler, who was diagnosed with polio when she was 12 months old, had also beaten Brazilian Joyce de Oliveira easily in the Round of 16. (UNI)