India’s top paddlers Achanta Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra started their campaign at the WTT Star Contender Doha on a winning note and progressed into the second round of their respective singles categories on Monday.
Sharath Kamal was seen struggling in the initial stages of the game as he went down in the first game against Brian Afanador. But the world No 32 recovered well to gain the required momentum and gave no further chance to his opponent before sealing the match 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-1 against the Puerto Rican in the men’s singles first round. The Indian paddler will face world No 16 Patrick Franziska of Germany in the next round on Tuesday.