Singapore Smash: Sharath Kamal stuns world no. 13 to advance to R16, Ahyika-Sutirtha crashes out

The Infinity Arena of Singapore was treated to some exquisite table tennis, courtesy of India's Achanta Sharath Kamal who put up a brilliant display taking down world no.13 Darko Jorgic of Slovenia with a scoreline of 3-1 (8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-9) in what was an exhilarating contest.

Sharath was slow to get off his block with Darko starting brightly and looking sharper as he took the first game, but since then it was all Sharath Kamal as he blew past Darko who couldn't survive the blitz of drops and smashes that came his way.

The game had a lot of wonderful rallies with the two paddlers going back and forth and more often than not, Sharath held his composure to win the point.

Thanks to this victory, Sharath will now feature in the Round of 16 of the Singapore Smash, a marquee WTT event, for the first time in his career.

He has shown us all that age is just a number with the 41-year-old still causing major upsets in the world of table tennis and he will now face the winner of the match between Omar Assar of Egypt and Lee Sang Su of South Korea in the Round of 16.

However, the Mukherjee sisters Ahyika and Sutirtha would be very disappointed with their performance as the duo crashed out of the women's round of 16 tie against world no.8 Adina Diaconu and Maria Xiao, suffering a 1-3 (4-11, 14-12, 3-11, 9-11) defeat.

Right from the get-go, the Indian duo never looked comfortable and were often lost for ideas. They committed numerous unforced errors, playing the ping-pong into the net, and always played catch up to their counterparts, a formidable pair who did not need a second invitation to capitalise on the Indians' mistakes.

They ensured that Ahyika and Sutirtha never got into the game even after the score became 1-1 at one point.

Diaconu and Xiao will now face Chinese Taipei's Li Yu-Jhun and Cheng I-Ching in the quarterfinals.