Bhavinaben Patel on Friday became the first Indian to enter the semi-finals of the Paralympic Games table tennis competition and confirm a medal for India.

The 34-year-old paddler, competing in her maiden Paralympics, defeated the defending champion and world No. 5 Borislava Peric Rankovic of Serbia 11-5, 11-6, 11-7 in the women’s singles Class 4 event in a quarter-final match that lasted 18 minutes.

“I could win my match today due to the support of the people of India. Please keep supporting me so that I can win my semi-final too,” Patel said.

Earlier, Bhavina beat Brazil’s Joyce de Oliveira in her pre-quarter finals, also in straight games.

In the semi-finals on Saturday, Patel will take on on Zhang Miao of China.

There is no bronze medal play-off at the Tokyo Paralympics table tennis and both losing semi-finalists are guaranteed of a bronze.

In 2017, the governing board of the International Paralympic Committee had approved the International Table Tennis Federation’s request to remove the third-place play-off.

Compound para-archer Rakesh Kumar recorded a personal best score of 699 to be third in the men’s individual open ranking round. Competing among 36 archers, he will be in action in the elimination rounds on Saturday, along with compatriot Shyam Sundar, who stood 21st.

Jyoti Balyan, the only Indian women’s compound archer in the Games, stood 15th in the ranking round, while recurve archers Vivek Chikara and Harvinder Singh were 10th and 21st, respectively.

It was tough luck for women’s powerlifter Sakina Khatun, who finished fifth in the 50kg class with a best bench press of 93kg.

China’s Dandan Hu took home the gold with a best effort of 120kg.