Somdev Devvarman's chances of breaking into the top-100 by the end of this season suffered a jolt after he went down in the first round of the ATP Challenger event in Knoxville, United States.
Sixth seed Somdev fought hard but lost 6-7 (8) 3-6 to unseeded Croat Roko Karanusic in the
opening round of the $50,000 hard court event.
The defeat means that Somdev would not get any point this week.
The All India Tennis Association is hoping that Somdev will improve his ranking to get a direct entry into January's Chennai Open so that the wild card for India's only ATP event can be given to some other promising player.
Also exiting from the singles event was Prakash Amritraj, who lost 3-6 2-6 to South African Davis Cupper Izak Van der Merwe in the first round.
However, Somdev had success in the doubles event as he reached the quarter-finals but Prakash continued to have a bad day as he lost that contest too.
Somdev and compatriot Purav Raja saw off the challenge of local wild card entrants Cory Parry and Todd Paul 6-4 7-6(3) in the first round.
Prakash and his American partner Kevin Kim lost 2-6 3-6 to Davey Sandgren of America and John-Patrick Smith of Australia.
Another Indian in fray Harsh Mankad, who is doing well off late in the doubles, also booked a quarterfinal berth along with Philippines' partner Treat Conard Huey.
The second seeded pair came from behind to beat local wild card pair 2-6 6-2 10-8 Ryan Harrison and Rylan Rizza.