India’s G Sathiyan progressed to the men’s singles third round at the World Table Tennis Championships with a 4-0 win over Russia's Vladimir Sidorenko in Houston. The world No. 37 from India defeated his 179th-ranked opponent 11-9, 11-9, 11-8, 11-6 in the round of 64. Sathiyan next faces world No. 17, Aruna Quadri of Nigeria, in the round of 32. (Other Sports News)
India's top-ranked player, world No. 30 Achanta Sharath Kamal, had suffered a disappointing opening round loss on Tuesday. However, Sharath can still make an impact in the men's doubles alongside Sathiyan and in mixed doubles alongside Archana Kamath.
Sharath and Archana entered the round of 32 with a 3-0 win over Algeria's Sami Kherouf and Katia Kessaci. Sathiyan and Manika Batra got a first-round bye and play their round of 32 mixed doubles match against Puerto Rico's Adriana Diaz and Brian Afanador.
Manika and Archana have got a first-round bye in women's doubles. Earlier, Tokyo Olympian Batra, the country's best-ranked women's player, went down 3-4 (11-5, 15-13, 8-11, 4-11, 6-11, 11-4, 7-11) to Brazil's Bruna Takahashi.
Compatriots Sutirtha Mukherjee and Madhurika Patkar lost to South Korea's Choi Hyo-joo (11-8, 4-11, 5-11, 0-11, 4-11) and Japan's Saki Shibata (7-11, 4-11, 3-11, 8-11) respectively. Ayhika Mukherjee was the lone Indian winner in women's singles in contention as she beat Egypt's Farah Abdel-Aziz 4-2 (11-7, 14-16, 8-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-6).
The four-time Olympian Sharath Kamal lost to Belgium's Cedric Nuytinck 1-4 (11-9, 5-11, 6-11, 7-11, 9-11) while Harmeet Desai was blanked 0-4 (9-11, 7-11, 7-11, 4-11) by Germany's Benedikt Duda.
Sathiyan on Wednesday had beaten Ukraine's Yaroslav Zhmudenko 4-0 (11-2, 11-9, 11-4, 11-3) in the men's singles opening round.
