Yuki Bhambri, Prajnesh make first round exit from US Open Qualifiers
NEW YORK: India's big hope Yuki Bhambri crashed out of the US Open men's singles qualifiers with a three-set defeat to Japanese Go Soeda while Prajnesh Gunneswaran also suffered a tame defeat here.
Bhambri, who recently beat French World number 22 Gael Monfils, suffered a 6-1, 1-6, 3-6 defeat at the hands of 22nd seed Japanese in the opening round, which lasted one hour and 44 minutes.
The left-handed Prajnesh, who has been named in Indian Davis Cup team as a reserve, lost 1-6 4-6 to Germany's Yannick Hanfmann in his first round match.
India's hopes to see a singles player competing in the main draw of the last Grand Slam of the season still remained alive with Ramkumar Ramanathan featuring in the bottom half of the qualifying draw.
Ramkumar, now India's number one singles player at 156, faces seasoned Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, who is now placed 213 in the ATP ranking chart.