Chennai: 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.
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.
Ymer, who attained his career high ranking of World No. 225 last month, was a replacement to former champion Janko Tipservic of Serbia.
The young Swedish player made his ATP main draw singles debut at the 2013 Swedish Open where he lost in the first round to Grigor Dimitrov. Ymer was given a wildcard at the 2014 Swedish Open and defeated Mikhail Kukushkin in the first round before falling to Jo?o Sousa in the second round. He has won 5 ITF Futures Singles titles in 2014.
Ymer, who is coached by Magnus Norman & Mikael Tillstrom, broke Igor in the third game but the latter broke him back in the seventh. However, Ymer kept fighting hard and closed the first in his favour.
The second set was more intense, mostly played from the baseline. The rivals traded breaks in the third and fourth games. Ymer suffered lapse in concentration and was broken in the ninth and then Igor held his serve in the 10th to draw parity.
The decider was also going on serves but Ymer came up with excellent and all round display in the vital sixth game to take a 4-2 lead. It was easy for mer then to close the contest in his favour.
In a doubles match at the centre court Stanislas Wawrinka, winner of the doubles title in 2013 here, playing with Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut came from behind to upset third seeds Johan Brunstrom (Sweden) and Nicholas Monroe (USA) 5-7 6-3 10-8 in 83 minutes.
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