Table Tennis World Championships: G Sathiyan only surviving Indian in singles

The star Indian paddler, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran has advanced to the third round of the men's singles at the ongoing Table Tennis World Championships in Huston. The 28-year-old defeated Russia's Vladimir Sidorenko 4-0 in straight games and is now the only surviving Indian in the singles section at the World Championships.

Up against World Number 179, Sathiyan hardly had to break any sweat at the George R. Brown Convention Centre. The Indian pocketed the first two games easily with an identical scoreline of 11-9, before clinching the next two 11-8 and 11-6 respectively. Having won in straight games in the first round as well, Sathiyan is yet to drop even a single game in this edition of the World Championships.

On the other hand, the only other Indian to make it to the second round of singles, Ayhikha Mukherjee, fell to a 4-0 defeat against world number 18 Hina Hayata of Japan. Mukherjee was no match to her much superior opponent and did not manage to cross the five-point barrier even once in the match. She lost 5-11, 4-11, 3-11, 4-11 to crash out of the tournament.

In the doubles section, the Indian men's doubles pair of Anthony Amalraj and Harmeet Desai fell to a hard-fought 11-8, 9-11, 9-11, 11-5, 8-11 loss to the pair from Nigeria. While the women's doubles pair of Ayhikha Mukherjee and Madhurika Patkar surrendered 3-11, 7-11, 4-11 without a fight to the pair from Singapore.