Athens: On a mixed day for Indian paddlers, Commonwealth champion Achanta Sharath Kamal stormed into the second round of men's singles while compatriot Mouma Das bowed out without a fight in the women's event of the 28th Olympics Table Tennis championship in Athens today (Aug 14, 2004).

Kamal defeated Mohammad Boudjadja of Algeria 4-1 in the opening round while Das was found wanting against her more fancied opponent, going down in straight sets without much resistance against Nanthana Komwong of Thailand.

Kamal, who had kept a very moderate target of clearing the first hurdle before leaving for the Games, never appeared to be under any pressure against the Algerian, taking the tie 11-4 12-10 11-6 11-13 11-7 to reach the round of 64. The Indian national champion, ranked 49th in the tournament, will now take on 25th-ranked Chak Lai Ko of Hong Kong.

Kamal went on the offensive right from the word go, taking the first set with relative ease. Though his opponent managed to gather some momentum in the second set, the Indian managed to hold on to his own and looked like running away with the tie after taking a 3-0 lead.

Though Boudjadja managed to delay the inevitable by taking the fourth set, Kamal kept his cool to rally in the fifth and take the tie. But it was not a happy outing for Das in the women's singles, as she had no answer to the attacking strategy adopted by her opponent.

Komwong, ranked 20 places above the Indian in the event, dominated the proceeding from the first set itself to take the tie 11-6 11-7 11-3 12-10.

Das was rendered helpless by the aggressive topspins of the Thai paddler and before she could gather her composure, she was down by three sets.

The Indian did put up a fight in the fourth set but the more experienced Komwong ensured that there were no last minutes hiccups in fixing a date with Nicole Struse of Germany in the second round.

According to the format of the championship, the top 16 seeds receive a bye till the round of 32 while the next 16 players get a first round bye.