Prem Kumar Ale pulled off a sensational win on Friday as he defeated top-seed Thomas Wandschneider in three games to progress into the quarter-finals of the BWF Para Badminton World Championships.

The Indian lost the first game 18-21 but made a comeback to win the next two games and advance. A semi-finalist at the Uganda International 2019, closed out the match 18-21, 21-15, 21-18. Ale next faces China’s Yang Tong on Saturday.

Ale was exceptional in his game and made Wandschneider cover the full-court. While Ale maintained his fitness, he tired his opponent to complete the biggest win of his career.

In the third game, Ale picked up seven consecutive points. He later said that this was the happiest moment of his career.

“I knew Thomas is a strong player so I tried not to make mistakes and give him points,” Ale said” The plan worked. My target is to win a gold at this World Championships and then at the Paralympics.”

But Ale could not repeat the feat in men’s doubles. He and partner Abu Hubaida lost to Wandschneider and Mi Young-Chin 11-21, 14-21 in the WH 1-2 competition.

In other events, world no 1 Pramod Bhagat led the charge in men’s singles SL3, winning his pre-quarter-finals against China’s Chen Xiaoyu 21-15, 21-12 in just 29 minutes. Later, third seed Manoj Sarkar and Umesh Vikram Kumar joined Bhagat in the quarter-finals winning their respective matches.

“It was a good match. I am better adapted to the conditions now. The courts are on the slower side so I was trying to play more rallies and attacking tosses,” Bhagat said.

Meanwhile, third seed Sukant Kadam also had another comfortable day in SL4 event as he needed just 19 minutes to win his pre-quarters over New Zealand’s Corrie Keith Robinson 21-8, 21-11, after third seed Krishna Nagar overcame his doubles partner Raja Magotra with a 21-9, 21-17 scoreline in men’s singles SS6.

Tarun Dhillon later joined Kadam in SL4 quarterfinals.

India’s women stars Parul Parmer and Manasi Joshi, in SL3, and promising Palak Kohli (SU5) were scheduled to play their pre-quarters matches later in the day.

Parmer alongwith Raj Kumar had already progressed into the mixed doubles SL3-SU5 quarters after defeating Swede-Norwegian pair of Rickard Nilsson and Helle Sofie Sagoy 21-18, 21-11.

In other doubles matches, some of the pairs were still finishing their group matches - top seeded Indian duo of Raj Kumar and Rakesh Pandey won their second match to top Group A of men’s doubles SU 5, as did third seeds Krishna Nagar and Raja Magotra in SS 6.