Prakash bows out of Knoxville Challenger

New Delhi:

Prakash Amritraj made an early exit from the $50,000 ATP Challenger series event in Knoxville, USA after losing his singles and doubles first round matches.

Prakash had an upper hand in the singles match against Australian wild card John Partick Smith after annexing the first set but Smith showed tremendous will to come back and script the 4-6 6-4 6-3 ouster of the Indian Davis Cupper.

In the doubles, Prakash and his brother Stephen lost 3-6 6-7 (2) to French pair of Olivuier Charroin and Nicolas Tourte.

India's number one singles player Somdev Devvarman is also in the fray and faces American top seed Vincent Spadea in his opening round match.

In the doubles event, the Indian pair of Harsh Mankad and Ashutosh Singh set up a quarter-final clash against American top seed Bobby Reynolds and Rajeev Ram after a hard fought win over Luka Gregorc of Slovakia and Fritz Wolmarans of South Africa.

The Indian pair registered a 7-6 (5) 7-6(4) win in their first round match.