Star para-shuttlers Suhas Yathiraj, Tarun Dhillon and Sukant Kadam registered contrasting victories to start off their respective campaigns in men’s singles SL4 event in style after the women shuttlers — Manasi Joshi and Mandeep Kaur — lost their respective women’s singles SL3 opening round matches on the opening day of the Paris Paralympics on Thursday.

Later in the day, Palak Kohli started her SL4 women’s singles campaign with a strong win, beating local favourite Milena Surreau 21-12, 21-14 in just 28 minutes.

In the men’s SL3 singles event, it turned out to be an all-Indian contest between Nitesh Kumar and Manoj Sarkar, with the former living up to his billing as the No.1 seed to edge out his compatriot 21-13, 18-21, 21-18 in a thrilling contest.

Suhas, a silver medallist from the Tokyo Paralympics, displayed his class by making lightwork of Indonesia’s Hikmat Ramdani in Group A. Suhas, the No.1 seed in the men’s SL4 category closed out the contest in just 22 minutes with a dominant 21-7, 21-5 scoreline. He will next face South Korea’s Kyung Hwan Shin on Friday.

A win over Shin will all but assure Suhas of a spot in the semifinals. The winners of each of the four groups advance to the semis.

In his second Paralympics appearance, Tarun Dhillon, who had a severe knee injury from a football accident, began his singles campaign with a win, beating Brazil’s Oliveira Rogerio Junior Xavior De 21-17, 21-19 in the men’s SL4 category in 36 minutes.

Tarun had finished fourth at the Tokyo Paralympics and has given himself a good start here in Paris.

Making his Paralympics debut, Sukant Kadam, who had sustained a severe knee injury from a fall in a cricket field at the age of 10, started with a hard-fought win over Malaysian 4th seed Mohd Amin bin Burhanuddin in the group stage. The Indian came back from a game down to win 17-21, 21-15, 22-10 in a match that lasted just over an hour.

In the SL4 classification, athletes with lower limb impairments and minor balance issues in walking or running compete.

Manasi, Mandeep lose opening SL3 contests

Former world champion para-shuttler Manasi Joshi squandered a positive start before going down 21-16, 13-21, 18-21 against top seed Qonitah Ikhtiar Syakuroh of Indonesia in the Group A women’s singles SL3 event. The SL3 category is for athletes with an impairment in one of their lower limbs.

One of India’s top medal hopes at the 2024 Paralympics, Manasi, whose leg was amputated following a road accident in 2011, started off on a promising note by taking the first game comfortably.

In their past six meetings, the Indonesian dominated all the contests by registering straight games victories, but on Thursday, the 35-year-old Indian began strongly in the opening game to take the upper hand, and looked on course to make it 6-1 in her favour.

However, the 22-year-old world No.1 Syakuroh bounced back strongly in the second game to level the contest before Manasi forced her way back to a 16-15 lead in the decider until the Indonesian pulled it off when it mattered the most.

While Manasi’s losing record against Syakuroh continued, she can be proud of a superb performance that stretched the world no.1. However, Manasi has a tough task in the three-person group, given the other opponent is Oksana Kozyna of Ukraine, world’s gold medallist in 2022.

The top two go through, so Manasi has to beat her next opponent to reach the quarterfinal.

In the other women’s singles SL3 match, India’s Mandeep Kaur suffered a straight games 8-21, 14-21 defeat to Nigeria’s Mariam Eniola Bolaji.

The unseeded Indian, who transitioned from arm wrestling to badminton after a corrective surgery in 2018, was no match for the third-seeded Nigerian, who dominated the 29-minute contest throughout. Like Manasi, Mandeep will now have to beat Australia’s Celine Aurelie Vinot to stay alive in the competition.

Mixed outing in doubles

The opening mixed doubles group stage (SL3-SU5) contest was an all-Indian affair with the duo of Nitesh Kumar and Thulasimathi Murugesan recording a win over compatriots Suhas Yathiraj and Palak Kohli. The Group A contest ended in a 21-14, 21-17 victory for Nitesh and Thulasimathi in 31 minutes. SU5 players have significant impairments in their upper limbs.

Nitesh Kumar, hailing from Karnal district in Haryana, and young Thulasimathi Murugesan, a veterinary science student from Tamil Nadu who won bronze in mixed doubles at the Asian Para Games last year, faced minimal challenges in their first game. At one point, they held a seven-point lead.

In another mixed doubles SH6 group stage contest, the Indian pair of Sivarajan Solaimalai and Nithya Sre, seeded second, lost in straight games to the American duo of Miles Krajewski and Jayci Simon. Sivarajan and Nithya fought hard but were ultimately defeated by the American pair with scores of 21-23, 11-21 in 35 minutes. Players in the SH6 category are of short stature.