Both athletes are the top seeds in their respective categories.
Tokyo silver medalist Suhas Yathiraj and Nitesh Kumar have continued their strong performances by securing spots in the men’s singles SL4 and SL3 semifinals, respectively, at the Paralympics on Friday. Suhas, an IAS officer from the 2007 batch, defeated South Korea’s Shin Kyung Hwan 26-24, 21-14 in his second match, finishing at the top of the three-man Group A in the SL4 category. Meanwhile, Nitesh, a 29-year-old IIT Mandi graduate, dominated China’s Yang Jianyuan with a convincing 21-5, 21-11 win, ensuring a top-two finish in the four-man Group A of the SL3 category.
In the SL4 classification, the group winners advance directly to the semifinals, while in the SL3 category, the top two players from each group move on to the semifinals.
Nitesh, who sustained permanent leg damage due to an accident in 2009, will next compete against Thailand’s Bunsun Mongkhon in his final Group A match.
However, it was a challenging day for Manasi Joshi and Manoj Sarkar, who both suffered their second consecutive defeats, eliminating their chances of advancing to the semifinals in their groups.
Manasi, the 2019 World Champion, narrowly lost to Ukraine’s Oksana Kozyna 21-10, 15-21, 21-23 in her second women’s singles SL3 Group A match after previously losing to Indonesia’s Qonitah Ikhtiar Syakuroh on Thursday.
Tokyo bronze medalist Manoj also faced another setback, losing 19-21, 8-21 to Bunsun in his second Group A match. Manoj had earlier been defeated by fellow Indian Nitesh on Thursday and will face Yang on Friday.
The SL4 category is for athletes with lower limb impairments who have minor balance issues in walking or running, while the SL3 category is for players with more severe lower limb disabilities and requires play on a half-width court.
On Thursday night, Nitesh and Thulasimathi Murugesan were defeated by Indonesia’s Ramdani Hikmat and Oktila Leani Ratri 15-21, 8-21 in their second mixed doubles SL3-SU5 group stage match.
Suhas Yathiraj and Palak Kohli also lost 15-21, 9-21 to France’s Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noel in their second Group A mixed doubles match.
The SU5 class includes athletes with upper limb impairments.
