Badminton's debut at the Paralympic Games yesterday was hailed as a "dream come true" by players, 29 years after it became an Olympic sport.
Badminton was first played at the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 and now 90 players will battle for medals in 14 events over five days at Tokyo's Yoyogi National Stadium in the inaugural Paralympics tournament.
The honor of the first match win in Paralympics history went to German No 3 seed Valeska Knoblauch, who breezed past countrywoman Elke Rongen 21-7, 21-8 in the WH1 category.
Knoblauch will also go down as the player who hit the very first badminton serve in the Paralympics.
The International Paralympic Committee finally selected badminton for Olympics inclusion at Tokyo, four years after the Badminton World Federation integrated para badminton into its structures in 2015. The sport makes quite a spectacle, with two courts set up for wheelchair play alongside two for standing athletes.
