Yuki Bhambri, Ramkumar Ramanathan bow out of French Open Qualifiers

Paris: Yuki Bhambri went down fighting while Ramkumar Ramanathan suffered a tame defeat as the two Indians bowed out of the French Open Qualifiers, here today.

Up against Canada's 25th seed and world number 132 Peter Polansky, Yuki lost the first round match 6-7(7) 6-7 (5).

Ramkumar lost to Argentina's world number 114 and 13th seed Guido Pella 2-6 1-6 in a lop-sided first round encounter on court number 18.

In a close opening set, Yuki and Polansky broke each other once to be on an even keel and eventually the set was decided by a tie-breaker in which the Canadian managed to prevail.

In the second set, Yuki had the opportunity to draw first blood and he converted the break chance in the fifth game to go up 3-2. Polansky though broke back in the eighth game and held his own to grab a 5-4 lead.

Yuki was now serving to stay in the match and held nerves to make it 5-5. The second set too went down to the wire but it was the Canadian who again prevailed. Yuki saved three match points but Polansky closed the match on the fourth.

The defeat of both Yuki and Ramkumar means that yet again, no Indian will compete in the singles main draw of a Grand Slam event.