Prajnesh Gunneswaran fails to enter French Open main draw
Paris: India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran failed to make it to the main draw of the French Open, starting Sunday, after losing to Aleksandar Vukic of Australia in the second round of men’s singles qualifying event.
On Wednesday, Gunneswaran lost 6-4, 7-6 (4) and was knocked out of the qualifiers.
The Indian, ranked 141, began poorly as he was broken in the opening game of the match. Vukic was much stronger with his serves. However, Gunneswaran did have a chance to claw back when he had two break-points in the fourth game, but failed to convert and lost the first set.
The 30-year-old got off to a strong start in the second set and took a 2-0 lead, but the Australian broke back in the third game. Both players then held serve throughout the set, taking it to a tie-breaker where Gunneswaran lost serve four times and lost the match.
With Gunneswaran’s loss, India’s challenge in the men’s singles event comes to an end as Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan had already lost in the first round of the qualifiers.
Ankita Raina is now the only Indian in the competition and would be vying for a place in the women’s singles main draw when she faces Japan’s Kurumi Nara on Thursday. She had earlier beaten Jovana Jovic of Serbia 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the first round of the qualifiers.
