National champion Achanta Sharath Kamal rescued India from a one-match deficit to lead them to a 3-1 victory over Scotland in their opening league encounter of the 17th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships which began in Jaipur on Wednesday.

The Indian women, meanwhile, posted a facile 3-0 victory over South Africa in their opening group match.

The Indian men made an ominous start to their title defence as Soumyadeep Roy went down in an unexpected loss to Rumgay Gavin in the opening singles despite being up 1-0.

Roy lost 6-11,12-10,7-11,10-12 and it was left to Sharath Kamal to draw parity by trouncing Stewart Crawford 11-1,13-11, 9-11, 11-7.

Shubjajit Saha then got the better of Gordon Clancey 11-2,11-7,11-5 to put India in lead. In the return singles, Sharath Kamal routed Gavin 11-5,11-8,11-9 to lead India to victory.

In contrast, Indian women had no trouble in getting past the South Africans their opening league match and earned a 3-0 win without dropping a game.

National champion Mouma Das first beat Samira Mall 11-8, 11-3,11-5 and later Poulomi Ghatak powered to an 11-6,11-1, 11-6 victory against Dana Samowitz.

In the third match, K Shamini beat Alisha van Rooyen 11-5,11-5,11-5 to complete a facile 3-0 win.

Top seeds Singapore, meanwhile, opened their campaign with an effortless 3-0 victory over northern Ireland in a group 'A' league match while their strong women's team thrashed Pakistan 3-0.