Asian Para Games: Bhavina, Suhas Open With Wins

Bhavina Patel, Suhas Yathiraj and Krishna Nagar made winning starts as India began a busy day of group-stage competition at the Asian Para Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026. India had athletes in para badminton, para table tennis and blind football on the opening schedule, with several players and pairs securing early victories.

Bhavina started her women’s singles Class 4-5 campaign with a straight-games win over Kuwait’s Ahad Alrasheedi, prevailing 11-6, 11-3, 11-6. The result gives her a positive opening in the group, with Jordan’s Faten Eleimat her final group-stage opponent on Saturday. A win in that match would secure Bhavina’s place in the round of 16.

Table tennis players make early progress

India’s para table tennis group-stage programme also brought wins for Sahana, Subham and Jehan. Sahana defeated Vietnam’s Thi Hoa Nguyen 11-6, 11-5, 11-4 in the women’s singles Class 9 Group B contest. She is due to face Chinese and Kazakh opponents in her remaining group matches.

Subham opened his men’s singles Class 3 Group D campaign by beating Nepal’s Keshav Thapa 11-6, 11-4, 11-9. His next match is against Saudi Arabia’s Ibrahim Alhassan, with victory set to secure a quarter-final place. The top two players from each group advance.

Jehan defeated Sandeep 3-1 in a 36-minute contest, winning 11-8, 12-10, 10-12, 11-6. The two Indian players are in a five-player single-legged round-robin group alongside competitors from Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and South Korea. Each player faces the others once, and the top three in the final standings earn medals.

Abu Hubaida, however, suffered a difficult start in his group match against China’s Mai Jianpeng, losing 11-21, 9-21. He will next play Japan’s Reo Oyama in a match identified as a must-win encounter, with only two players from the group progressing to the quarter-finals.

Badminton contingent collects singles and doubles victories

Suhas began his men’s singles SL4 campaign with a 21-8, 21-11 victory over Bangladesh’s Joytu Dhar in 26 minutes. Abhijeet Sakhuja also won in the same category, overcoming Chinese Taipei’s En-chuan Yeh 21-17, 21-12.

Prem Kumar Ale recovered from one game down to beat Indonesia’s Agung Widodo 18-21, 21-15, 21-16 in 42 minutes. The victory levelled their head-to-head record at one apiece. Prem has further group matches against Malaysian and UAE opponents, with the top two from the group advancing to the quarter-finals.

In doubles, Krishna Nagar and Nithya Sre Sivan defeated Malaysia’s Muhammad Bin Azmi and Nurzammiezatul Mohamad 21-7, 21-7. They have group matches remaining against Chinese and Chinese Taipei pairs, with the top two pairs progressing to the semi-finals.

India also had two winning mixed doubles pairs in the SL3-SU5 category. Manisha Ramadass and Pramod Bhagat beat China’s Li Tongtong and Lichuan Xiong 21-16, 19-21, 21-16, while Nitesh Kumar and Thulasimathi Murugesan defeated Thailand’s Chanida Srinvakul and Siripong Teamarrom 21-9, 21-7. Manasi Joshi and Ruthick Raghupathi lost 15-21, 4-21 to Indonesia’s Khalimatus Sadiyah and Fredy Setiawan.

Alphia James and Prem Kumar Ale were beaten 15-21, 9-21 by China’s Menglu Yu and Jainpeng Mai in their first group match. Their final group match against a Chinese Taipei pair is a must-win, as only two pairs advance to the quarter-finals.

What the opening results mean

The early wins put several Indian athletes in strong positions as the group stage continues across the para badminton and para table tennis events. Bhavina, Suhas, Krishna and the other opening-day winners now have the chance to build on those results in their remaining matches, while India’s wider contingent continues its opening programme across multiple sports.