Yuki crashes out of French Open, Bopanna advances

Yuki Bhambri's maiden appearance at the French Open ended with a first round defeat even as Rohan Bopanna began his men's doubles campaign with an easy win along with French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin, here today.

Yuki lost his opening men's singles match 4-6 4-6 1-6 to Belgium's Ruben Bemelmans in straight sets. It was second clash between Yuki, ranked 93, and the Belgian, who is placed 110 on the ranking chart.

Yuki had got the better of Bemelmans at the ATP Delhi Open semifinals in 2015.

With his defeat India's challenge ended in the men's singles.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran had made it to the main draw as a lucky loser but he could not compete as he had confirmed his participation at a Challenger event in Italy after losing his final qualifying round and had left paris.

The player has to be present at the venue to sign in and must have not committed to play in any other event to be eligible for entry into main draw.

Bopanna, who won his maiden Grand Slam title here last year in mixed doubles with Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski, and Roger-Vasselin, seeded 13th, knocked out the American team of Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe 6-3 6-1 in just 63 minutes.