There will be no Indian presence in the singles main draw at the Australia Open this year with Yuki Bhambri stumbling at the final hurdle, losing his third and final qualifying round match to Ernesto Escobedo, in Melbourne on Saturday.
Mukund is now the second Indian player to pull out of the tie after Rohan Bopanna had withdrawn due to a shoulder injury.
Paes was dropped from the tie against Uzbekistan last April. He has been out of favour since the Bengaluru fiasco when he was not included in the starting line-up by captain, Mahesh Bhupathi.
Capping off a great day for India, Sania Mirza advanced to the third round of both the women's and mixed doubles events, while Rohan Bopanna and Purav Raja also won their respective mixed doubles matches at the Wimbledon in London.
Ramkumar, who ended a runner-up at the Newport event last week, lost 4-6, 4-6 to American Taylor Fritz.
Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza advanced to the second round of doubles events at Wimbledon on Wednesday.
India's Sania Mirza put herself in contention for a seventh Grand Slam title as she breezed into the Australian Open mixed doubles final with Ivan Dodig, beating local favourites Samantha Stosur and Sam Groth in Melbourne on Friday.
India's World Group hopes suffered a huge setback as Rohan Bopanna and Purav Raja lost the crucial doubles rubber to hand Canada a 2-1 lead in the Davis Cup Play-off tie, in Edmonton, on Sunday.
Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan's Grand Slam debut ended in the first round itself.
The Tamil Nadu-based Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, who recently made his Davis Cup debut and is expected to lead India's doubles challenge in coming years, is spending time hitting at private courts and handling the marketing of their family resort in Pondicherry.
Rohan Bopanna secured a direct entry into the men's doubles at the Rio Olympics after officially returning to the top-10 in the ATP men's doubles rankings on Monday.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Sunday.
Top seeds Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis went through several anxious moments before getting past Russian girls Daria Kasatkina and Alexandra Panova in their opening doubles match at the French Open on Wednesday. The reigning Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open champions prevailed 7-6(4), 6-2.
Playing alongside Australian partner Matthew Ebden, the eight-time doubles Grand Slam champion Leander Paes showed his class during a clinical victory over defending champion and second seed Sharan, who was playing alongside New Zealand's Artem Sitak.
Top seeds Leander Paes and Raven Klaasen of South Africa lived up to their billing and entered the semi-finals of the men's doubles event at the ATP Chennai Open with a hard-fought win over Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Saketh Myneni.
Rohan Bopanna's stupendous run at Wimbledon earned him a career-best No 5 ranking in the ATP doubles chart and made him the top-ranked Indian in the game.
India's top singles players, led by Somdev Devvarman, easily advanced to the second round of ATP Pune Challenger on Tuesday, but rising star Ramkumar Ramanathan made a shock first-round exit. Third seed Somdev proved too good for local wild card Arjun Kadhe, scoring a 6-1, 6-3 victory in 60 minutes. Seventh seed Yuki Bhambri disposed of the challenge of Chinese Taipei's Liang-Chi Huang 6-3, 6-0.
Somdev Devvarman, India's No 1 singles player, was knocked out of the ATP Atlanta Open by American qualifier Jared Donaldson on Tuesday. The 30-year-old Davis Cupper, who also entered the main draw of the event through the qualifiers, lost 1-6, 6-3, 4-6.
Bopanna being the highest-ranked doubles player in the country is automatic choice for the doubles rubber.
Indian tennis stars Leander Paes and Sania Mirza cruised into the mixed doubles pre-quarterfinals of the French Open along with their respective partners in Paris on Thursday. While Paes and his Swiss Partner Martina Hingis, winners of three Grand Slam titles last season, beat German-Colombian pair of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Robert Farah 6-4 6-4 in the opening round, second seeded Sania and Ivan Dodig of Croatia eased past French duo of Mathilde Johansson and Tristan Lamasine 6-4 6-3 in their opener later in the day. However, it was curtains for another Indian Purav Raja, who, along with Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, crashed out in the opening round of the men's doubles event. The duo lost 1-6 2-6 against ninth seeded Polish-Austrian pair of Lukasz Kubot and Alexander Peya.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday.
Yuki Bhambri breezed past Italy's Marco Cecchinato in the opening round of the qualifiers in the Chennai Open on Saturday.
India's tennis players -- both current and former -- are not just counting financial losses as they cope with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The closure of the Pro Tour means that doubles exponent Purav Raja is set to lose at least $50,000 in this lockdown period, according to his own assessment. Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Divij Sharan can't exactly tell how much they would lose but considering the fact that they are consistently in contention to be in Grand Slam main draws, the massive financial hit is not difficult to assess.
Sharapova was broken in the first game but fought back to draw level before going on to take the first set with a hold to love.
The 44-year-old veteran says he has not lost hope and by his own admission, he is still playing the game for the love of it.
'The only thing I am feeling bad right now is, if he had decided earlier to not come even two weeks or 10 days ago, we would have got a specialist doubles team in place'
Senior pro Leander Paes's place in the Indian Davis Cup team will be up for discussion when the AITA Selection Committee meets on Monday to pick the squad for the upcoming Asia/Oceania Zone tie against Uzbekistan.
Veteran Indian tennis star Leander Paes began the 2017 season and his partnership with Andre Sa on a disappointing note as they crashed out of the Chennai Open with a straight sets defeat against rising stars Divij Sharan and Purav Raja in Chennai. Paes and his 111th partner were sent packing 4-6 4-6 in 67 minutes by Sharan and Raja, who enjoyed a successful 2016 season with four Challenger level titles and silently broke into top-70. Both Raja and Sharan are establishing themselves as force to reckon with as they look for their third ATP World Tour title at a home event.
Defending champion and top seed Stanislas Wawrinka scored a clinical 6-1, 6-4 win over Borna Coric of Croatia to progress to the men's singles quarter-finals at the ATP Chennai Open tennis tournament.
Ramkumar to play opening singles tie against Schnur, Yuki takes on Shapovalov on day 1
Divij Sharan, who was a reserve in the Indian Davis Cup team, has decided not to travel for the away tie against China, a move which may soon pave the way for introduction of a code of conduct for players.
AITA brought back old warhorse Leander Paes in the Davis Cup team despite 'reservations' from seasoned campaigner Rohan Bopanna.
Vishnu Vardhan won his second Challenger level title of the season with Japanese partner Toshihide Matsui but four other Indians, including Leander Paes, tumbled out of various ATP events across the globe.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday
Somdev Devvarman would be India's while Yuki Bhambri is expected to carry his good from into the new season which is full of new challenges for the Indian players as ATP Aircel Chennai Open begins on Monday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
The iconic Leander Paes has ruled out immediate retirement from the competitive tennis, saying his comments were misconstrued and he actually aims to capture another Chennai Open trophy next year and motivate his new partner to win his maiden Grand Slam title. Paes and Brazilian Andre Sa began the 2017 season with a defeat against Indian team of Purav Raja and Divij Sharan in the opening round on Wednesday night.
Coming into the tournament 21st in the WTA rankings, the Czech won 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and 16 minutes to add to her triumph in St Petersburg earlier this month.
Fresh from winning the Chennai leg, Yuki Bhambri advanced to the second round, even as the other two Indians Saketh Myneni and Vishnu Vardhan made quiet exits in the $50,000 ATP Challenger at BTA Courts in Kolkata.
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