India's Ramkumar Ramanathan, who came through the qualifying rounds, stumbled at the first hurdle in the main draw, losing to Japan's Rio Noguchi in a hard-fought three-setter in the first round here on Tuesday.

Ramkumar fought back superbly after losing the first set and won the third and took the matters to the tiebreaker in the decider but lost steam and went down 4-6, 6-3, 6-7(1).