Jack Shephard hailed “one of the best matches of my life” after coming through a thriller against Vitor Tavares on a day which saw Krysten Coombs, Rachel Choong and Dan Bethell also claim vital group stage victories.
Shephard was four points behind at one stage during the opening game but roared back to claim it 21-19, only for Tavares to level matters by winning the second 21-15.
The Brazilian looked to be heading for victory when he built up another four-point lead in the decider but the 27-year-old from Chesterfield once again showed his fighting spirit as history repeated itself.
Shephard ultimately came out on top 21-19 to seal victory in an epic 56-minute encounter and get up and running in Group C of the SH6 men’s singles following Thursday’s defeat against Lin Naili.
“I’m ecstatic, I just played one of the best matches of my life,” he said.
“It wasn’t perfect but it was enough to get over the line. There are things we can move forward with but it puts me in a good place to get through the group, so I’m very happy with that.
“There are so many family and friends out there and I can’t thank them enough for coming, it really helped me over the line. It was fantastic having a crowd like that to bounce off.”
Elsewhere in the same category, Coombs also bounced back from an opening day defeat as he beat Indonesia’s Subhan Subhan.
The 33-year-old Devonian won the opening game 21-15 before being pegged back in the second as Subhan claimed it 21-17.
Coombs would have been facing a group stage exit had he lost the decider but summoned all his determination to win it 21-18 and set up a crunch clash with India’s Sivarajan Solaimalai on Saturday.
Coombs means business 😎
What a win 👏 taking it 21-18 in the 3rd set 🥵🔥
➡️ Looking strong for tomorrow’s last group match! 🇬🇧#LetsGo #ParalympicsGB pic.twitter.com/Ns5KOCB4nR
— Badminton England (@BadmintonEnglnd) August 30, 2024
“We had a great battle out there and he put up a great fight, which is what you want at the Paralympics,” he said.
“These are the best athletes in the world so you’re not going to come here and have little easy walkovers.
“I believed in myself, which is the big one, then I can win. That has given my confidence a big boost going into tomorrow and the rest of the tournament. I might be one of the older players here but I’m still fighting the younger ones.”
Choong started her SH6 women’s singles campaign with a victory over Peru’s Rubi Milagros Fernandez Vargas in three games.
The 30-year-old from Liverpool, playing her first singles match at a Paralympics, lost the first game 21-14 but hit back to win 21-19, 21-17.
“It wasn’t my prettiest badminton but I’m really pleased to be on the winning end of it,” she said.
“I can see why people dedicate four years of their lives to get here. For badminton, as Europeans, we are not used to playing in front of thousands of people.
“I’m so pleased to go out here, represent ParalympicsGB and try my hardest to put in good performances. I want to come away with no regrets.”
Day two started with another comfortable win for Bethell, who secured his progress into the SL3 men’s singles knockout stages with a 21-9, 21-4 win against Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara – with ex-Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp again in attendance.
Victory no. 2 👏🔥🏸
📸 @badmintonphoto pic.twitter.com/MHQbbfIuaU
— Badminton England (@BadmintonEnglnd) August 30, 2024
“You can’t go into the Paralympic Games thinking it’s just another tournament, because it’s not,” Bethell said.
“We’ve got a big crowd here and the media attention is completely different to what I’m used to.
“The adrenaline is high going out onto court when the crowd gets going and you need to be calm, you need to be the calmest person in the room and I feel like I’ve got the hang of that in that match.
“I was really enjoying it by the end, I was loving it. The atmosphere was fantastic.”
There was disappointment for Shephard and Choong in the SH6 mixed doubles as the top seeds exited at the group stage.
They were beaten by China’s 11-21 7-21 by China’s Lin Naili and Li Fengmei in a match which finished after 1am local time.
Shephard said: “It was a tough match. The Chinese pair were really strong today. It was tough to prepare, we did our best. It’s late at night, a lot of the crowd had gone. I thought we had good patches where we played really well but we didn’t bring a strong enough game to win.”
Choong added: “We had singles only a few hours earlier and both of them went to three games. We knew it would be tough, three of the four mixed doubles pairs in the world are in one group.
“We are disappointed we couldn’t get a win on the board but we’ll reflect on it and there is always room to improve. We know what we need to do to get closer to them.”
