SHUTTLER Mohd Amin Burhanuddin claimed his first win in the Paris Paralympics but it might not be enough for him to make it into the semi-finals.
Amin suffered a heartbreaking 21-17, 15-21, 20-22 defeat in his opening match against India’s Sukant Kadam in Group B in the men’s SL4 (lower body impairment) but showed great fighting spirit to recover well and beat Thailand’s Siripong Teamarrom 21-14, 22-20 in his second match at Adidas Arena in Port de la Chapelle yesterday.
Despite the win over the Thai, the 30-year-old, who is making his debut could still miss out on a spot in the last four as only the group winners can progress.
Sukant will qualify for the semi-finals instead of Amin if he comes out on top over Siripong.
National para badminton coach Woon Sze Mei was pleased with Amin’s performance and hoped that her charge would make it to the semi-finals.
“Amin played well today (yesterday). There were not too many long rallies in the match and his opponent gave away some easy points,” said Sze Mei.
“Now, we need to wait and see tomorrow (today) if Amin can qualify for the last four. It depends on the match between Sukant and Siripong.”
Amin, who captured silver in the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou last year, will be hoping for the Thai to pull off an upset and give him a helping hand.
Meanwhile, Noor Azwan Noorlan-Ikhwan Ramli’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals in the wheelchair men’s doubles event were dashed after they went down 16-21, 6-21 to China’s Qu Zimo-Mai Jianpeng in their second match in Group B.
It was the pair’s second defeat after losing 21-17, 13-21, 16-21 to Japan’s Daiki Kajiwara-Hiroshi Murayama a day a earlier.
Sze Mei felt that Azwan-Ikhwan’s attacking game lacked some punch against the Chinese pair.
“Azwan-Ikhwan made some mistakes during a few rallies. They improved a bit when they tried to counter attack,” said Sze Mei.
“But their attacking game was lacking a bit of punch.
“They still have matches to play and they need to keep fighting.”
Azwan-Ikhwan will complete their group stage today against Germany’s Rick Hellmann-Thomas Wandschneider.
They will have another chance to make it to the semi-finals when they play Chile’s Jaime Aranguiz in Group D and South Korea’s Jeong Jae-gun in Group B in their opening men’s singles matches respectively.
RESULTS
Men’s singles SL4
Group B: Mohd Amin Burhanuddin (Mas) bt Siripong Teamarrom (Tha) 21-14, 22-20.
Men’s doubles wheelchair
Group B: Qu Zimo-Mai Jianpeng (Chn) bt Noor Azwan Noorlan-Ikhwan Ramli (Mas) 21-16, 21-6; Daiji Kajiwara-Hiroshi Murayama (Jpn) bt Rick Hellmann-Thomas Wandschneider (Ger) 21-15, 21-5.
