Indian paddlers put up an impressive performance on the opening day of the World table tennis championships, being played in Paris, with three of the five players in action comfortably winning their preliminary group matches, on Monday.
Top Indian men's player Chetan Baboor had no problems while overcoming his lesser-known opponent, Chriss Ndzoli of Congo, 11-3, 11-5, 11-8, 11-3.
In other matches, Sharath Kalam thrashed Tahiti's Sylvain Motahu 11-3, 11-3, 11-4, 11-7 while in the women's section, Mouma Das defeated Elmira Aliyeva of Kazakhstan 11-2, 11-6, 11-3, 11-5.
However, the other two Indians in the women's section -- Mamta Prabhu and Pradeera Thiruuengadam -- could not pack the killer punch necessary at the highest level and went down fighting to higher-ranked opponents.
Mamta took Pia Finnemann of Denmark to the full distance before losing 11-6, 7-11, 6-11, 11-8, 9-11, 7-11 while Judit Herczig of Austria got the better of Pradeera, winning 11-5, 6-11, 11-8, 12-10, 10-12, 11-8.
In the mixed doubles, Sorav Chakravorthy and Mouma Das reached the third round before losing to Tomas Konechy and Katerina Penkavova of Czech Republic 5-11, 6-11, 4-11.
Earlier, the duo defeated Enio Mendes and Vanu Carvalho of Portugal 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 and prevailed over Juan Acosta and Elina Gonzalez of Peru 9-11, 11-5, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6 in the second round.
Other Indian results (first round):
Mixed doubles: Sharath Kamal/Pradeera Thiruuengadam lost to Indika Silva/Deepika Rodrigo (Sri) 11-8, 10-12, 8-11, 11-9, 8-11.
Men doubles: Chetan Baboor/Kamal Sharath beat Santoago Coste/Hector Berrios (Pur) 9-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-4.
Women doubles: Pradeera/Mamta Prabhu lost to Carina Jonsson/Susanna Nilsson (Swe) 5-11, 6-11, 5-11.
