Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal faced some stiff resistance before getting the better of Mikhail Gladyshev 4-1 and stormed into the men's singles quarter-finals of the Egypt Open table tennis championships while all his compatriots crashed out in Cairo on Saturday.
The lanky Indian was on a roll with his attacking game as he took a 3-0 lead by winning first three games 11-7, 11-9 and 11-8 but his Russian rival did his bit to comeback.
Gladyshevtoom away the fourth game 11-7 but Sharath clinched the issue by winning the fifth one 11-9. Sharath will now play Abdel-Kader Salifou of France in the last-eight stage.
However, it was curtains for the other two Indians Soumyadeep Roy and A Amalraj. Roy went down 1-4 against Vang Bora of Turkey, while Jiang Tianyi of Hong Kong spanked Amalraj 4-0 in their pre-quarterfinals.
Earlier, none of the three Indian women could reach the second round of the singles competition.
Reigning national champion Poulomi Ghatak suffered a 0-4 defeat against Ni Xia Lian of Luxemburg, while Li Xue of France cut short Madhurika Patkar's campaign with a 4-1 win.
Former India number one Mouma Das also became a first round casualty after losing 0-4 to Reiko Hiura of Japan.
It was also heartbreak for India in the men's doubles quarterfinal where the combo of Roy and Sourav Chakraborty (1-4) failed to match the Hong Kong pair of Jiang Tianyi and Leung Chu Yan.
Meanwhile, the Indian pair of Neha Aggarwal and Soumi Mondal was thrashed by Creemers Linda and Nouwen Carla of the Netherlands in the women's doubles quarter-final.
