Ace Indian paddler Sharath Kamal, on Saturday, advanced to the second round of the ITTF Kuwait Open Super Series table tennis tournament after a 4-2 victory over Hampus Soderlund of Sweden in Kuwait City.
The rest of the Indian contingent, including men’s National champion Soumyajit Ghosh, Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty and Jubin Kumar had failed to qualify for the singles main draw.
In the women’s singles, none could reach the main draw with Ankita Das, Shamini Kumaresan, Mousumi Paul, Pooja Sahasrabudhe, Neha Aggarwal and Madhurika Patkar falling by the wayside.
In the men’s doubles, the combinations of Sharath Kamal and Sanil Shetty, Jubin Kumar and Soumyadeep Roy, and Harmeet Desai and Soumyajit Ghosh fell at the qualifying round.
The results (Indians only) : Men’s singles : First round : Sharath Kamal bt Hampus Soderlund 11-7, 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 11-13, 11-5; Soumyadeep Roy lost to Xu Xin 11-7, 11-7, 11-6, 11-4.