Para-badminton player Ilaria Renggli wins the bronze medal in the individual tournament at the Paralympics with a 21:13, 21:14 victory over Yuma Yamazaki from Japan.
Ilaria Renggli (24) did not have to worry much about winning her first medal at the Paralympics. She immediately pulled away from her opponent in both sets: 6:1 in the first set, 8:3 in the second. After 34 minutes, Renggli converted her first match point.
The player from Aargau exceeded her own expectations in Paris. She spoke about her goals at the beginning of the year: Renggli wanted to at least play in the singles in Paris and win a medal in the doubles. Eight months later, she narrowly lost the bronze medal match in the doubles with Cynthia Mathez against two Thai players (20:22, 25:27), but 16 hours later she won the medal in the singles. In the singles in Paris, she only lost twice in the preliminary round and in the semi-finals to Li Hongyan from China.
Renggli did not win medals for the first time: At the Para World Championships two years ago in Tokyo, she took bronze in singles and doubles. At the European Championships a year ago in Rotterdam, she even won gold (doubles) and silver (singles).
