Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal, Soumyadeep Roy and A Amalraj entered the men's singles second round but it was curtains for their women counterparts in the opening round itself as India made a mixed start at the Egypt Open table tennis tournament in Cairo.
Soumyadeep thrashed Russian Shibaev Alexander 4-0, while Sharath Kamal trounced Barbolin Illia of Belarus 4-0 but it was the 24-year-old Amalraj who made some heads turn when he beat Mikhail Paykov of Russia 4-1 in the main draw of the men's singles event on Friday.
However it was curtains for Sourav Chakraborty, Karia Devesh, Abishek Ravichandran and Sanil Shetty in the men's singles.
Lashin El-Sayed of Egypt beat Sourav 4-2, Devesh lost 0-4 to Leung Chu Yan of Hong Kong, Abishek was spanked 0-4 by Saive Jean-Michel of Belgium, while Sanil succumbed to a 0-4 defeat to Jiang Tianyi of Hong Kong.
The Indian women were even worse as none of them could reach the second round.
Former National champion Poulomi Ghatak suffered a 0-4 defeat to Ni Xia Lian of Luxemburg, while Li Xue of France cut short Madhurika Patkar's campaign with a 4-1 win.
Former national champion Mouma Das also became a first round casualty after losing 0-4 to Reiko Hiura of Japan.
In men's doubles, Sourav Chakraborty and Soumyadeep came together and notched up a 4-1 victory over Al-Mohannadi Ahmad and Almughanne Fahed of Qatar to move into the next round.
Sharath Kamal and Sanil also put up a spirited fight but couldn't get past Jiang Tianyi and Leung Chu Yan of Hong Kong, losing 2-4 in another match.
Devesh and Abishek also failed to cross the first hurdle and lost 2-4 to Omar Assar and Emad Moselhi of Egypt.
In women's doubles, Neha Aggarwal and Soumi Mondal kept Indian hopes alive with a 4-2 triumph over the Egyptian pair of El-Sokary Sara and Dina Meshref.
However, Poulomi and Mouma were not so lucky as they lost 2-4 to Creemers Linda and Carla Nouwen of the Netherlands, while the combination of K Shamini and Madhurika succumbed to a 0-4 defeat to Grzybowska Katarzyna and Partyka Natalia in another match.
