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 [ Images ] 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 [ Images ] 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.