India's Sukant Kadam, Suhas Yathiraj and Tarun made a winning start in the SL4 opening men’s singles category group matches to make a resounding start to their campaign in Para badminton competition at the Paralympics on Thursday.
Sukant, 31-year-old had suffered a knee injury after a bad fall in a cricket field when he was just 10.
He recovered from the opening game reversal to emerge 17-21 21-15 22-20 winner over Malaysia’s Mohammed Amin Burhanuddin in his opening Group B match.
On the other hand, Tokyo Paralympics silver medallist Suhas, hardly broke any sweat as he zoomed past Indonesia's Hikmat Ramdani 21-7 21-5 in his group A match which lasted just 22 minutes.
Playing in his second Olympics, Tarun, who had badly injured his knee after an accident while playing football, defeated Brazil's Oliveira Rogerio Junior Xavier 21-17 21-19 in men's singles SL4 group D match.
The SL4 category includes athletes who have lower limb impairment and minor balance problems in walking or running during competitions.
However, Mandeep Kaur and Manasi Joshi lost their respective women's singles (SL3) group stage matches.
The mixed doubles duo of Sivarajan Solaimalai and Nithya Sre, seeded second, also lost their SH6 group stage match in straight games to the American pair of Miles Krajewski and Jayci Simon.
Manasi, a 2019 world champion, whose leg was amputated after suffering a road accident in 2011, did well to pocket the opening game but couldn't sustain the pressure on her rival to go down 21-16 13-21 18-21 to Indonesia's Qonitah Ikhtiar Syakuroh in group A.
Mandeep, who switched to badminton from arm wrestling after undergoing surgery which helped her to walk straight in 2018, lost 8-21 14-21 against Nigeria's Mariam Eniola Bolaji in a group B match.
SL3 is for athletes with severe levels of lower limb disability, which requires them to play on a half-width court.
In Group B, Sivarajan and Nithya gave a tough challenge to the American pair before going down 21-23, 11-21 in 35 minutes in the SH6 category.
The SH6 category is for players of short stature.
Unable to counter the pair's net play and deep tosses, Suhas and Palak quickly found themselves losing the game in just 14 minutes.
The SU5 players have significant impairments in their upper limbs.
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