The rust showed but Achanta Sharath Kamal eventually dusted away the cobwebs and prevailed 4-2 over Alfredo Carneros of Spain to labour into the second round of men's singles table tennis event of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing on Tuesday.
The lanky Indian toiled hard against Carneros, his partner at the San Sebastian Club in Spain, but held his nerve to win the tactical battle 6-11, 12-10, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7 in 45 minutes.
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With two opponents, well aware of each other's strength and weaknesses, fighting it out, Sharath did not find going easy against Carneros, especially with the Indian spraying his forehands.
Almost invariably, Sharath would race to early lead but the nagging Spaniard always found a way to crawl into the match and make life difficult for the Indian.
After Carneros came from behind to win the first game, Sharath took 8-5 lead in the second but the Spaniard caught up with him at 10-10. Sharath finally wrapped up the game with two stinging forehands to draw parity and stay afloat.
Sharath pocketed the third game as well but Carneros was not ready to sit back and relax. Trailing 5-8, the Spaniard hit back and won six of the next seven points to level the score 2-2.
Sensing danger, Sharath raced to a 5-0 lead in the fifth game and though Carneros made desperate efforts to reduce the gap, he knocked one long and was then left cursing luck as Sharath's return touched the net before dropping dead.
Sharath grew in confidence and looked more consistent and he sealed the sixth game with a fierce forehand that beat Carneros all ends up.
"This being my first match, there was some rustiness. Besides, you had two players who know each other inside out. It was more of a mind-game, for I knew what he was going to do and he knew what I was up to. So the trick was to out-think each other," Sharath said after the victory.
"Every time I took a lead, he would catch up with me and it was getting very nagging. I also had trouble while standing back, as I could not gauge the ball and had most of the time dipping it just in front. That's why I could not put top spin and was lobbing it, which made it easy for him," he explained.
The Melbourne Commonwealth Games gold medallist will now take on Australian Weixing Chen, who has beaten him before.
Should he get past Chen, then he will meet world No 1 Hao Wang of China.
About his next match, Sharath reckons it would not be easy against Weixing but said he has nothing to lose.
"I lost to him 4-3 in the Austrian Open but that was a really close match. And I'm talking about a match that took place two years back. Things have changed a lot since then and I'll put my best foot forward tomorrow," he said.
Photograph: Getty Images
