Ramkumar, Paes make early exit from Atlanta Open

After the high of Hall of Fame Open, India's Ramkumar Ramanathan made a first round exit from the ATP Atlanata Open singles while veteran Leander Paes too was ousted from the USD 748450 hard court tournament.

Ramkumar, who ended a runner-up at the Newport event last week, lost 4-6 4-6 to American world number five Taylor Fritz.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran has already lost his first round to Slovakia's Lukas Lacko, thus Indian challenge ended at the tournament.

In the doubles, Paes and his American partner James Cerretani lost their opener 5-7 1-6 to American pair of Mike Bryan and Frances Tiafoe.

Purav Raja and Ken Skupski though had advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4 6-3 win over Ricardas Berankis and Malek Jaziri. Top seeded Divij Sharan and Artem Sitak are up against Romen Arneodo and Jeremy Chardy.