World TT Championships: Sharath Kamal win opening round of singles; Manika-Sathiyan progress in mixed doubles

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Sharath Kamal cleared the first hurdle at the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban on Sunday as the veteran Olympian defeated World No. 170 David Serdaroglu of Austria 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-6 to advance to the round of 64.

The other Indians in the singles competition, G Sathiyan and Manika Batra, will play their opening round matches later on Sunday. Manush Shah and Harmeet Desai lost their opening matches on Saturday. Sreeja Akula had won her round of 128 clash against Nicole Arlia of Italy.

Earlier, Manika Batra and G Sathiyan advanced to the Mixed Doubles round of 32 after notching a tense 3-2 victory over Xia Lian Ni and Luka Mladenovic of Luxembourg here on Saturday.

The fourth-seeded Indian pair won 9-11, 11-8, 14-16, 11-7, 11-6 against their Luxembourg opponents who are ranked 122 positions below them in the world rankings.

With inputs from PTI