Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal came up with a resounding performance to overcome higher-ranked German Steger Bastian and reach the third round in the World Table Tennis Championships in Yokohama, Japan, on Thursday.
World No 85 Sharath defeated Bastian, ranked 39, 4-1 in a long-drawn round of 64 contest.
Earlier, he defeated world No 95 Wang Jianfeng of Norway 4-2 in his campaign opener.
The lanky Indian, who regularly plays for Super Division club San Sebastian in the Spanish League, will take on Gionis Panagiotis of Greece in the round of 32 on Friday.
Sharath also got off to a resounding start in the men's doubles. He paired with former National champion Subhajit Saha to drub Serbian pair of Grujic Slobodan and Karakasevic Aleksandar 4-0 and enter the second round.
They will now take on the Brazilian duo of Monteiro Thiago and Tsuboi Gustavo.
However, it was a forgettable day for the Indian women as the country's top doubles pair of Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das was spanked by the Chinese pair of Cao Zhen and Liu Shiwen 0-4.
Besides, all the Indian women contenders, including the new singles national champion Kumaresan Shamini, failed to cross their first-round hurdle in the prestigious event.
