Ramkumar Ramanathan, who had reached the final of the Hall of Fame Tennis Open at Newport last year, was out in the second round of the ATP 250 event on Wednesday.
The Indian world No 134, who had to qualify for the main draw, lost 7-6(5), 6-0 to France’s Ugo Humbert on grass.
The French fourth seed, who had produced his best Grand Slam result last week, losing to the eventual champion Novak Djokovic in the fourth round of Wimbledon, proved to be too much of a tough ask for the India No 2.
Ramkumar had played a solid match in the first round, saving a match point to beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-2. But he could not repeat a similar performance in the second set, as he failed to a win a single game against Humbert.
India’s challenge is still alive in the doubles with third seed Leander Paes.
At the ATP Challenger in Kazakhstan, Sasi Kumar Mukund was beaten in two tie-breaks by Arthru Rinderknech of France, while Sidharth Rawat went down in three sets against Matteo Viola of Italy in the second round.
