HOUSTON: Sathiyan Gnanasekaran advanced to the men's singles round of 32 at the World Table Tennis Championships Finals 2021 in Houston, USA, with a win over Table Tennis Federation of Russia's Vladimir Sidorenko on Wednesday.

G Sathiyan defeated Vladimir Sidorenko 4-0 (11-9, 11-9, 11-8, 11-6) to go to the third round, where he will face Quadri Aruna of Nigeria, a silver medalist at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran's victory maintained India's singles challenge at the world championships alive, while Ayhika Mukherjee fell in women's singles.

Ayhika Mukherjee lost 4-0 to Japan's Hina Hayata, the current world No. 18. (5-11, 4-11, 3-11, 4-11).

After the first round of matches on Tuesday, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Ayhika Mukherjee were the only Indian singles players to advance.

In the round of 64 in men's doubles, India's Anthony Amalraj and Harmeet Desai were defeated by Nigerian combo Olajide Omotayo and Bode Abiodun. Amalraj and Desai were defeated 3-2. (11-8, 9-11, 9-11, 11-5, 8-11).

The duo of G Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal, India's top draws in men's doubles, received a first-round bye and will begin their campaign on Thursday in the round of 32.

Sutirtha Mukherjee and her women's doubles partner Madhurika Patkar were both eliminated in the first round, falling 3-0 (3-11, 7-11, 4-11) to Singapore's Goi Rui Xuan and Wong Xin Ru.

Manika Batra and Archana Kamath will be in action from the second round after a first-round bye.

Edited - SportsAction / Inputs - Agency