New Delhi: Top Indian tennis player Yuki Bhambri was on Thursday knocked out of the Busan Open by China's Ze Zhang, while a gritty N Sriram Balaji fought tooth and nail before losing a tight second round to second seed Attila Balazs at Samarkand Challenger.
Second seed Yuki, playing his first tournament after winning the Challenger title at Santaizi in Taiwan, lost 4-6 3-6 to his 265th ranked Chinese opponent to whom he had never lost before.
It was the third match between the two players.
Balaji, who had qualified into the main draw, lost 6-7(5) 6-7(3) to his Hungarian challenger after a stiff two-hour four-minute battle. Balaji is also competing in the doubles event with Vishnu Vardhan.
Meanwhile, at the Heilbronn Challenger in Germany, India's Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and his Austrian partner Tristan-Samuel Weissborn reached the quarterfinals with a 6-3 6-4 win over Dustin Brown and Darian King.
However, at the Bordeaux Challenger in France, the second-seeded pair of Purav Raja and his French partner Fabrice Martin lost their quarterfinal match 3-6 5-7 to Argentine pair of Guillermo Duran and Maximo Gonzalez.
