Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal, Soumyadeep Roy and A. Amalraj entered the men’s singles second round but it was curtains for their women counterparts in the opening round itself as India made a mixed start at the Egypt Open table tennis tournament in Cairo.
Soumyadeep thrashed Russian Shibaev Alexander 4-0, while Sharath Kamal trounced Barbolin Illia of Belarus 4-0 but it was the 24-year-old Amalraj who made some heads turn when he beat Mikhail Paykov of Russia 4-1 in the main draw of the men’s singles event yesterday.
However it was curtains for Sourav Chakraborty, Karia Devesh, Abishek Ravichandran and Sanil Shetty in the men’s singles.
Lashin El-Sayed of Egypt beat Sourav 4-2, Devesh lost 0-4 to Leung Chu Yan of Hong Kong, Abishek was spanked 0-4 by Saive Jean-Michel of Belgium, while Sanil succumbed to a 0-4 defeat to Jiang Tianyi of Hong Kong.
The Indian women were even worse as none of them could reach the second round.
Former National champion Poulomi Ghatak suffered a 0-4 defeat to Ni Xia Lian of Luxemburg, while Li Xue of France cut short Madhurika Patkar’s campaign with a 4-1 win.
Former national champion Mouma Das also became a first round casualty after losing 0-4 to Reiko Hiura of Japan.
In men’s doubles, Sourav Chakraborty and Soumyadeep came together and notched up a 4—1 victory over Al—Mohannadi Ahmad and Almughanne Fahed of Qatar to move into the next round.
Sharath Kamal and Sanil also put up a spirited fight but couldn’t get past Jiang Tianyi and Leung Chu Yan of Hong Kong, losing 2-4 in another match.
Devesh and Abishek also failed to cross the first hurdle and lost 2-4 to Omar Assar and Emad Moselhi of Egypt.
In women’s doubles, Neha Aggarwal and Soumi Mondal kept Indian hopes alive with a 4-2 triumph over the Egyptian pair of El—Sokary Sara and Dina Meshref.
However, Poulomi and Mouma were not so lucky as they lost 2-4 to Creemers Linda and Carla Nouwen of the Netherlands, while the combination of K Shamini and Madhurika succumbed to a 0-4 defeat to Grzybowska Katarzyna and Partyka Natalia in another match.
