Hall of Fame Championships: India’s Prakash Amritraj loses to former world number one Lleyton Hewitt in 2nd round

India’s Prakash Amritraj crashed out in the second round of the Hall of Fame tennis championships, losing to former world number one Lleyton Hewitt of Australia 2-6, 1-6.

The Australian, who was last year’s runner-up, broke Prakash’s serve twice to bag the first set 6-2. The Indian, runner-up in the 2008 edition, came a cropper against the 64^th ranked Aussie, who broke his serve at regular intervals to clinch the second set in a facile manner at 6-2.

Prakash – son of legendary Indian tennis player Vijay Amritraj – struggled with his serves, committing as many as five double faults in stark contrast to Hewitt, who served solidly, firing ten aces to dictate terms to his opponent.

Earlier, the 308^th ranked Indian created a bit of an upset when he slammed the tournament exit door on 147^th ranked Flavio Cipolla of Italy 6-2, 6-3 in the first round.

The win over Cipolla, who is more than 160 places above him, should help him break into the top-300 when the latest ATP rankings are released next week.

Interestingly, Prakash’s father Vijay had won the Hall of Fame tennis crown thrice – 1976, 1980 and 1984.

Prakash’s best performance in 2013 has been a semi-final finish in the US$50,000 ATP Karshi Challenger hard court tennis tournament, where he retired hurt in the semi-finals against seventh seed Radu Albot of Moldova.

The Indian had lost the first set tamely 1-6 and was broken once in the second set to trail 0-3 when he retired hurt.

Prior to his semi-final entry, his earlier best performances have been second round appearances in the ATP Chennai Open and Le Gosier tournaments.