Indian paddlers off to mixed start in Egypt Open

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 on Friday.

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.