Prakash goes down fighting

India8217;s No. 1 tennis player Prakash Amritraj went down after a valiant fight to Danish veteran Kenneth Carlsen 4-6, 2-6 in the second round of the 380,000-Mercedes-Benz Cup ATP tournament at Los Angeles last night.

Vijay Amritraj8217;s son Prakash got over Russia8217;s Marat Safin in the first round. The 15 ATP points he got for getting over 2000 US Open winner Safin took him past Rohan Bopanna in the ATP race and made him India8217;s No.1 singles player. He was leading 5-3 when Safin withdrew due to a left wrist injury. Prakash, an American national earlier, became eligible to play for India in April.Carlsen would now meet top-seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt in the third round of the tournament after Hewitt disposed off American qualifier Michael Joyce 6-3, 6-0. In a 25,000 challenger event in Denver, Harsh Mankad too made his exit in singles play, losing 6-2, 3-6, 3-6 to home lad John Paul Fruttero in the second round.

Mankad, however, had better outing in the doubles with Arvind Parmar of Great Britain, winning 6-2, 6-3 against American Ryan Haith and Gonzalo Anguiano of Chile.