Indian tennis ace Yuki Bhambri suffered a major blow as his third Australian Open appearance ended with straight sets defeat at the hands of Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the opening round on Today.
The 25-year-old, who qualified for the main draw of the tournament after beating Canada’s Peter Polansky in the third and final qualifying match, made many unforced errors to go down 6-7 (4), 4-6, 3-6 in two hours and nine minutes at the Melbourne Park.
Bhambri had a chance against world number 103 Baghdatis, but he made a staggering 33 unforced errors in contrast to just three of the Cypriot to bow out in the opening round.
It should be noted that Bhambri is yet to win a round in the main draw of a Grand Slam and the Australian Open is the only major he has played.
In his last two appearances in the main draw, Bhambri had suffered a defeat against British tennis maestro Andy Murray in 2015 before being knocked off by Tomas Berdych in the opening round in 2016.
Bhambri was a lone qualifier in the men’s singles event of this year’s Australian Open.
