Pramod Bhagat, Manasi Joshi reach quarter-finals of Para Badminton World Championships

TOKYO: India's Pramod Bhagat and Manasi Joshi topped their respective groups and advanced to the quarterfinals of the BWF Para Badminton World Championships, here on Wednesday.

After opening their title defence on a strong note in SL3 (standing lower severe impairment) events on Tuesday, top seed Bhagat made light work of England's William Smith 21-5 21-3 while Joshi saw off France's Catherine Naudin 21-6 21-4 to top her group on the day.

Bhagat, who also won his men's doubles SL3-SL4 with Manoj Sarkar, is expected to face Japan's Daisuke Fujihara, the Paralympic bronze medallist in mixed doubles category, in the semifinals.

Expectedly, Paralympic bronze medallist Sarkar and Nitesh Kumar, double gold medallist at the Nationals, have also advanced and will be facing France's Mathieu Thomas and England's William Smith, respectively.

In women's events, Parul Parmar and Mandeep Kaur topped their respective groups in singles SL3.