Harsh Mankad and Tushar Liberhan fell by the wayside as the Indian players cut a sorry figure in the second round of the $ 50,000 ATP Challenger tennis tournament in New Delhi on Tuesday.
It turned out to be a disastrous day for the hosts, who now have only two players, national champion Ashutosh Singh and national grass court champion Vishnu Vardhan, left in the fray.
Wild card Mankad could not pose any threat to third seed Kristian Pless of Denmark and went down 4-6, 2-6. Lucky loser Liberhan was blown away by fourth seed Go Soeda who pounded the Indian 6-1, 6-0 to set up a third round clash with Ashutosh.
US-based Rajeev Ram outplayed Purab Raja 6-1, 6-3, while second seed Gilles Muller overcame teething troubles to tame Rohan Gide 7-6 (2), 6-2.
Top seed Yen-Hsun Lu of China overcame a jittery start to get past Australian Nick Lindahl 3-6, 6-3, 6-0.
More from rediff