Ramkumar Ramanathan paid the price of not containing his unforced errors as he made a first round exit from the ATP Chennai Open while his compatriot and qualifier Vijay Sundar Prashanth also bowed out after a crushing defeat, here today.
Ramkumar, who had happy memories of upsetting Somdev Devvarman in the previous edition at this venue, suffered a 3-6 3-6 defeat in the first round at the hands of World No. 87 Japanese Tatsuma Ito.
Prasanth was no match to Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic, copping a 2-6 1-6 bashing in 67 minutes.
Playing his aggressive brand of game but without control, Ramkumar hit more winners than his seasoned rival but could not contain unforced errors.
The 20-year-old Ramkumar saved a match point in the ninth game of the second set but failed to pick a backhand from Ito to make an exit.
India's singles hopes now rest on struggling Somdev, who is up against formiable Yen-Hsun Lu from Chinese Taipei.
In another first round match, qualifier Aljas Bedene of Slovenia continued with his momentum as he upset world number 94 Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 7-6(7) 6-3 in 97 minutes.
In the pre-quarterfinals, Bedene will take on second seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain.
Earlier in the evening, wild card and 18 year-old Elias Ymer shocked world number 84 Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands 6-4 4-6 6-3 to make it to the second round.
The Swedish tennis player of Ethiopian descent needed onw hour and 46 minutes to oust his Dutch opponent.
In another singles first round match at the outside court, Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania beat a fighting Italian qualifier Luca Vanni 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 in 108 minutes.
