Here's a round up of the best of the action this afternoon in Tokyo

Three Japanese players are inside the top five places in the SU5 women’s singles world rankings… and none of them are Akiko Sugino. The 30 year old doesn’t play singles in fact, she qualified via the mixed doubles ranking and is currently causing a massive upset in women’s singles Group B

World number 3 Cathrine Rosengren expected a tricky, but reasonably comfortable win in this opening round until she witnessed Sugino yesterday overcome her Japanese teammate and world number 4 Kaede Kameyama in three games.

Rosengren started well today, taking the opening game but Sugino dug deep in games two and three. Towards the end the Dane ran out of ideas, making some uncharacteristic errors that allowed the unseeded Japanese to take the win and top the group.

Cathrine spoke with BWF after the match, saying

- I thought I had a good start on court, and I wasn't very nervous. Then we changed sides and I couldn't control the shuttle at all. Every time I tried to lift the shuttle, I couldn't. My game just fell apart. I tried to come back again but it just didn't work for me. I'm just very disappointed. It wasn't what I expected.

- I don't really know what went wrong (in the third game). We were at 15-all and then I don't know. I had too many negative thoughts and thinking about different things. I tried to put the shuttle down but the strokes were going out.

Rosengren now faces a must-win battle with Kameyama which takes place at 1.40pm local time on Friday.

Read: How to follow the #EU17C21

Mroz trapped in group-of-death

Paralympic medals are out of reach in Tokyo for Poland’s Bartłomiej Mroz as he is defeated in Group A by Suryo Nugroho (INA) in straight games. The defeat today follows the loss yesterday to France’s Meril Loquette who must defeat one of the two Indonesians now to progress to the knockout stages

Chu Man Kai too fast for Coombs

Emphatic this morning against Jack Shephard and made to look quite average this afternoon by Hong Kong’s Chu Man Kai in the SH6 men’s singles group A, Krysten Coombs was dispatched in 25 minutes 21-15, 21-10 in his final group match.

World number one Shephard now needs to beat Chu in 2 straight games tomorrow, and by a decent score line if he is to proceed to the next round.

A repeat of the WH1 European Final

Valeska Knoblauch (GER) boasts victory in the last five meetings between her and ex World Champion Karin Suter-Erath. Today however the 50yr old Suisse had other ideas as she overcame Knoblauch not once, but twice with two-game wins in both the Group B WH1 singles and in WH1-2 women’s doubles with Cynthia Mathez against Knoblauch and Elke Rongen.

The result seemed inconsequential with both going through to quarterfinal stages against difficult opponents tomorrow. In Group C Zhang Jin beat Cynthia Mathez after saving two match points to seal a place in the quarterfinals, a tough break for the 35yr old.

Mazur and Noel with a place in the semi-finals

French SL3-SU5 mixed doubles pair Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noel recorded a solid win over Siripong Teamarrom and Nipada Saensupa (THA) for a place in the semifinals on Saturday. After the match they had this to say 

- Every day is different but we keep winning so we're very happy and let's go for the next match. It was good to win. We're in good shape, said Mazur. We're through but we don't know who our opponents are yet, he added

The Paralympic badminton schedule can be found here, with livestreams of one wheelchair and one standing court.

We will feature the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic badminton event here and across our usual platforms over the next two weeks, look out for more in days to come