Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Ayhika Mukherjee were the only Indian singles players to reach the second round of the World Table Tennis Championships that began in Houston on Tuesday.
While Sathiyan defeated Yaroslav Zhmudenko of Ukraine 11-2, 11-9, 11-4, 11-3, Mukherjee beat Egypt’s Farah Abdel-Aziz 11-7, 14-16, 8-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-6 in a closely fought match.
In mixed doubles, India’s Archana Kamath and Sharath Kamal made their way to the second round with a 11-7, 11-6, 11-6 victory against Algeria’s Katia Kessaci and Sami Kherouf.
Manika Batra was knocked out in the first round of the women’s singles competition. She lost 5-11, 13-15; 11-8, 11-4. 11-6, 4-11, 11-7 to Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi.
Sutirtha Mukherjee and Madhurika Patkar also didn’t make it to the second round.
In men’s singles, Sharath Kamal went down 9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-7, 11-9 to Belgium’s Cedric Nuytinck, while Harmeet Desai and A Amalraj also exited in the opening round.
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