File photo of Yuki Bhambri.
India's quest to qualify for the singles draw of Australian Open ended on Thursday morning with the defeat of Yuki Bhambri in the second round to Czech Republic's Tomas Machac here. The 29-year-old Indian went down in straight sets to the World No. 130 1-6, 3-6.
On Tuesday, Bhambri, who made a return to the circuit after a long injury layoff, had impressed with his attacking net play in a straight-sets win but Ramkumar Ramanathan's 23rd attempt at cracking the singles main draw of a grand slam had ended in a first-round defeat at the Australian Open qualifiers.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran went down fighting in the second round to Germany's Maximilian Materer 2-6, 6-7 (8) on Wednesday.
In the women's singles, Ankita Raina, ranked 203, was blown away by 120th ranked Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko 6-1, 6-0 in just 50 minutes.
(Reported by PTI)
