Ramkumar, Bhambri crash out of Wimbledon qualifiers

London: India's singles players yet again failed to cross the qualifying hurdle at the Grand Slam stage as both Ramkumar Ramanathan and Yuki Bhambri exited the Wimbledon with first round defeats.

Bhambri lost to Spanish top seed Bernabe Zapata Miralles 5-7, 1-6 while Ramkumar fell 5-7, 4-6 to the Czech Republic's Vit Kopriva on Monday night.

The 29-year-old Bhambri got off to a flying start as he got an early break in the opening set and, at one point, was leading 5-3.

However, Bhambri squandered two set points and it was Miralles who took the lead.

The second set, however, was a drab affair and Bhambri was eliminated from the grass court event.

India's No.1 ranked player Ramanathan took on the 19th seed Kopriva and the script turned out to be something similar.

The 27-year-old Ramanathan looked comfortable early on but lost steam soon after to lose the opening set.

He led 3-1 lead in the second but Kopriva bagged four games on the trot to regain control over the proceedings.

With both Bhambri and Ramanathan bowing out, Sania Mirza, who is in her last year on tour, remains the only Indian confirmed to play at Wimbledon this year.

The 35-year-old former doubles world No. 1 is all set to feature in the draw alongside her partner Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic.

Rohan Bopanna has decided not to play this event since ATP is not offering points this year as Russian and Belarusian players have been banned from competing by the organisers in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.