Top seeds and former ATP finalists Rohan Bopanna and Aisam Qureshi bowed out of the US $50,000 ATP Challenger Series in New Delhi after losing in straight sets in the first round on Monday.

The Indo-Pak pair lost 2-6, 3-6 to the unseeded combination of Prakash Amritraj and Rajeev Ram at the DLTA.

Meanwhile, Rohan Bopanna pulled out of the singles' competition due to a nagging left knee injury that he carried through the Davis Cup win over Japan in New Delhi last month.

India's Ashutosh Singh and Harsh Mankad beat Alexandre Kudryavtsev of Russia [Images] and Gouichi Motomura of Japan [Images] 7-6 (2), 6-4 in a close contest while the Indo-US duo of Mustafa Ghouse and Brendan Evans progressed after their opponents retired injured.

Ghouse-Evans were 6-7, 6-2 when Japan's Takao Suzuki, partnering Davis Cup teammate Go Soeda, withdrew with a back injury.

In the singles, second seed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg and Australian fifth seed Alun Jones suffered early exits in the Delhi heat.

Muller, who had once reached as high as 59 in the ATP charts, fell 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 to USA's Travis Rettermaier while Jones was upset 7-6, 7-5 by countryman Nick Lindahl.

An ill-tempered Yuki Bhambri squandered chances galore against Australia's Adam Feeney, ranked 925 places above the Indian at 274.

The 15-year-old Bhambri, who entered the tournament with a wildcard, went down 6-4, 3-6, 2-6 to Feeney in contest that lasted for more than two hours.

In another early morning contest, Kuwaiti Mohammad Ghareeb beat Australian Andrew Coelho 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) to advance to the second round.

Third seed Kristian Pless of Denmark and Ukranian qualifier Ilia Marchenko won tough three-setters to set up a second round clash.

Pless overcame Alex Satschko of Germany [Images] 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 while Marchenko beat Brazil's [Images] Ricardo Melo 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 in the first round.

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