An unfit Vijayant Malik fell by the way side on day one of the ITF Futures singles event as the fourth seed retired mid-way in his opening round against Sidarth Rawat, here.
Malik, who played Davis Cup tie against Korea, was trailing 2-6 4-4 when he opted out of the contest at R K Khanna tennis stadium.
Malik was laid low by food poisoning yesterday but took to the courts today, trying to fight his way. However he felt low on energy during the contest and when found the going tough, he conceded the match.
"It's frustrating. I did not feel like fighting. I felt helpless, did not have any energy to fight, so opted out of the match," Malik said after the match.
"I will now travel to Thailand next week for tournaments," he added
Mohit Mayur Jayapraksh, who won national hard court championship last month on these very courts, bowed out with a 3-6 2-6 defeat against seventh seed Karunuday Singh.
Third seed N Sriram Balaji swept aside the challenge of Rishab Agarwal 6-3 6-4 to set up a second round clash with Ramkumar Ramanathan.
Ramanathan recorded a 6-3 6-1 win over wild card Garry Tokas.
Top seed and title favourite Yuki Bhambri will open his campaign against Uzbekistan's Shonigmatjon Shofayziyev tomorrow.
