Indian ace Yuki Bhambri and his New Zealand partner Michael Venus suffered a first-round defeat at the 2026 US Open in New York on Saturday.
The pair went down in straight sets, 6-7, 6-7, in a competitive one-hour-44-minute battle against the American pairing of Ryan Seggerman and Patrik Trhac.
This marks the second consecutive first-round exit for the duo at a Grand Slam, following their early exit at Wimbledon 2026, after reaching the second round at the French Open earlier this year.
Both pairs started strongly, with solid serving and no breaks in the first set, forcing a tiebreaker. They lost consistency in the tiebreaker, conceding multiple mini-breaks, but eventually the American pair took the set.
In the second set, the Indo-Kiwi pair bounced back and broke serve to lead 2-0, but the advantage was nullified when they dropped their own serve in the seventh game.
This led to another tiebreaker in the match, and once again the American pair came out on top and won it 7-3 to win the match in straight sets.
Meanwhile, India’s Anirudh Chandrasekar and his Belarusian partner Ivan Liutarevich also exited in the first round, falling 4-6, 7-5, 4-6 to the British pair of Arthur Fery and Joshua Paris in a hard-fought three-setter.
With this, Sriram Balaji is now the only Indian left at the 2026 US Open, as he and his American partner Evan King had earlier progressed to the second round.