KPIT ATP: Paes, partner Ramanathan out

PUNE: Leander Paes' first appearance in a Challenger tournament in India in nearly two decades ended abruptly as he and

Ramkumar Ramanathan

went out of the $50,000

KPIT ATP

event in the second round on Thursday.

Paes and Ramanathan, the second seeds, suffered a shock 6-2, 3-6, 4-10 defeat to

Luca Margaroli

of Switzerland and Hugo Nys of France in a prime-time Centre Court match at the MSLTA Courts in Balewadi sports complex.

Ramanathan was furious with himself and smashed his racquet to pieces after the match, any amount of consoling by Paes was not enough to cool the 21-year-old down.

The match seemed to be in the Indians' pocket until the eighth game of the second set when Paes, world ranked 55, started to serve.

At 15-15, Ramanathan put a backhand slice into the net and followed it up with another backhand error to allow Margaroli and Nys to break their serve.

In the ensuing super tiebreak, the Chennai lad committed a few more unforced errors to hand the rivals a 6-1lead, after which the task proved to be an uphill one.

In singles action, Prajnesh

Gunneswaran

proved to be the lone Indian remaining in contention after he showed the door to third Saketh Myneni 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-0.

Myneni, however, had come into the tournament carrying a shoulder niggle and it hampered his serve and forehand returns significantly as the match progressed.

Still, the left-handed Gunneswaran had to tackle the tricky situation. It is the 26-year-old's first semi-final appearance in a Challenger.