Paralympics gold medallist Pramod Bhagat reached the men’s singles and doubles final of the BWF Para-Badminton World Championships here on Saturday. Manisha Ramadass is the lone Indian woman to reach the final.
An SL3 category shuttler, Pramod beat Japanese Daisuke Fujihara in straight games. However, the first game was closely fought and saw Pramod edging Fujihara 22-20. The second game was rather easy for the Indian, as he sealed the contest with a 21-14 win to reach the final.
Earlier, Nitesh Kumar got the better of compatriot Manoj Sarkar and set up Sunday’s all-Indian gold medal clash with Pramod.
Pramod has also secured a place in the men’s doubles final, partnering with Manoj. The SL3-SL4 pair beat France’s Guillaume Gailly-Mathieu Thomas.
In SU5 women’s singles, Manisha Ramadass and her Dane opponent Cathrine Rosengren played out an exciting contest. The Indian shuttler won the first game 21-19, but Cathrine bounced back to level the scoreline, taking the second game 21-17. In the end, Manisha prevailed in the third game with a 21-17 win.
Manisha will face Japanese Mamiko Toyoda in the final on Sunday. In the women’s doubles semifinal, Manish-Mandeep Kaur lost to Lenaig Morin-Faustine Noel of France.
However, it was a day of disappointment for Manasi Joshi and Parul Parmar. Manasi lost both her singles and mixed doubles matches. Ruthick Ragupathi, Manasi’s mixed doubles partner, also lost his SU5 men’s doubles match.
