World No. 1 shuttler Pramod Bhagat made an impressive start to his campaign in the men’s singles competition but young Palak Kohli endured a tough day at the Tokyo Paralympics, here on Wednesday.

Bhagat, the reigning world champion, defeated compatriot Manoj Sarkar 21-10, 21-23, 21-9 in his singles group A class SL3 opener that lasted 56 minutes.

The 33-year-old, who had contracted polio during his childhood, will face Ukraine’s Oleksandr Chyrkov on Thursday.

Earlier, Palak had a difficult day in office as she suffered defeats in both her women’s singles and mixed doubles matches. Up against Japan’s Ayako Suzuki, a gold medallist at the 2009 World Championships, the 19-year-old Kohli lost 4-21, 7-21 in just 19 minutes in a group A women singles class SU5 match. Palak and Bhagat had earlier gone down 9-21, 21-15, 19-21 against second seeds Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noel in the mixed doubles group B opener here.

The Indian duo of Amit Kumar and Dharambir ended fifth and eighth, respectively, in the F51 men’s club throw competition.

Avani falters

Shooter Avani Lekhara, who became India’s first female gold medallist in Paralympic Games two days ago, failed to replicate her success as she crashed out in the qualification round of the mixed 10m air rifle prone SH1 event. Lekhara was not at her usual best as she finished a disappointing 27th with a score of 629.7, crashing out in the third round.

Para swimmer Suyash Jadhav too endured a disappointing outing in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB7 final as he was disqualified for a rule violation.