Ramkumar Ramanathan continues to struggle on grass, crashes out of Ilkley ATP Challenger

Indian Davis Cupper Ramkumar Ramanathan continued to struggle on grass as he crashed out of the Ilkley ATP Challenger event after losing his first round to Austria's Sebastian Ofner.

Ramkumar lost 5-7 3-6 to Ofner in 64 minutes. He has managed to win only three matches in as many tournaments he has played since the grass court season began.

It was the fifth meeting between Ramkumar and Ofner, who had also won in the last encounter in Antwerp in 2017.

In the first three matches, Ramkumar had emerged victorious.

The Indian, ranked 125, converted only one of the three breakpoints while Ofner, placed 20 places below Ramkumar, broke his rival four times at the Euro 12700 event. Ramkumar earned 1320 euros.

There are four Indians in the doubles draw with Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan up against British pair of Luke Bambridge and Jonny O'Mara.

Purav Raja has teamed up with John Patrick Smith and the third seeds open their campaign against Peter Polansky and Matt Reid.

Left-handed Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and his American partner Austin Krajicek, who ended runners-up at Nottingham last week, have been drawn to meet Hubert Urkacz and Evan King.