Chengdu (China), Nov 29 (UNI) India's Sathiyan Gnanasekaran entered the pre-quarterfinal in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Men's World Cup after winning both his group matches against higher-ranked opponents, here on Friday.
Sathiyan defeated Frenchman Simon Gauzy, ranked eight places above him, 4-3 in an energy-sapping first match while he registerd a 4-2 win over world number 24 Groth Jonathan of Denmark.
In his first match of the day against Gauzy, Sathiyan was down two sets. However, he made an impressive recovery to win the match 11-13, 9-11, 11-8, 14-12, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8.