Pre-US Open Challengers, July-August 2018

[jaydeep]

A slow start for Prajnesh against USC player, Holt ... But after losing the first set Prajnesh recovered for winning next two sets ... Next, he is facing JC Aragone.

An expected comfortable winning start for Jeevan and Purav against Johnson brothers.

At $100K Aptos Challenger 2018, California, USA

[R1] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,171) bt (WC) Brandon Holt (USA,1196) 46 64 62

[R2] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,171) vs JC Aragone (USA,276)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (WC) Hunter Johnson (USA)/ Yates Johnson (USA) 62 64

[Rajiv]

A slow start for Prajnesh against USC player, Holt ... But after losing the first set Prajnesh recovered for winning next two sets ...

This slow start I feel is a part of set piece routine which PG employs not frequently but intermittently , in a match he feels he is confident of wining or to adopt an out of the box thinking in a crunch match , With this unorthodox approach he lulls his opponent in false sense of security, whereby the opponent lets down his guard , and than in the remaining two sets goes for an overkill. We saw that last week against Safawat where he came back to win after being bagel in the opening set and even at Annning the tournament which which he won , he came back to win the semi's(got bageld in the first set) and went on to win the finals in a same manner after losing the first set.

[PKBasu]

Or maybe he takes awhile to figure out an opponent (since he probably doesn't have a travelling coach to scout opponents), and becomes more effective once he's figured him out...

[vparam]

For those not familiar, Brandon Holt is the son of former tennis great Tracy Austin.

[jaydeep]

Thanks vparam for sharing this interesting information ... I wasn't aware of this.

[Sin Hombre]

Prajnesh with an excellent comeback win after being down match point in the 2nd set on the opponent's serve.

[R1] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,171) bt JC Aragone (USA,276) 46 75 64

[jaydeep]

Yes, superb win after down 46 4-5 and 40-30 on Aragone's serve ... Great comeback ...

Check match point of the match.

[jaydeep]

In the quarters, he is facing former top-70 talented Aussie youngster Thanasi Kokkinakis ... He is the 4th seed but looks lowly ranked due to this week's ATP ranking points change ... In 2017, he was finalist in Los Cabos Open but lost in the first round this year ... So those 150 points removed from his ranking points and he slides down 104 places this week.

At $100K Aptos Challenger 2018, California, USA

[QF] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,171) vs (4) Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS,268)

[kishash]

Pradnesh now ranked 160 in live rankings.

[jayakris]

Excellent job in the Houdini act, Prajnesh!!

[PKBasu]

Yes, superb win after down 46 4-5 and 40-30 on Aragone's serve ... Great comeback ...

Check match point of the match.

That was a LOONNG rally to end the match. We have an authentic baseliner in Prajnesh though! Great to see him continuing to progress!

[suresh]

We have an authentic baseliner in Prajnesh though! Great to see him continuing to progress!

He was standing well beyond the baseline and I was thinking that there was no way he could return a drop shot.

[jayakris]

Yeah, that was a 29-shot rally. It was funny to see the ump calling "Game, set and match" the moment the final shot left Aragone's racket, on the way to the net. Frankly, Prajnesh was really asking for trouble, hitting at least three shots dangerously short, but the other guy was timid enough not to go for a kill. Shot #19 was when the guy finally went for it, and returning that one deep to the line was great work by Prajnesh. Then it was only a matter of time before Aragone was going to lose patience and hit a hard shot, into the net...

[Atithee]

Prajnesh was hitting very ordinary returns. If that’s his standard of play, I would be really concerned. The opponent was hitting some quality shots. But, this may be just one point and even the right approach at match point. I was just surprised at how ordinary PG’s shots were.

[meyyis]

At $100K Aptos Challenger 2018, California, USA

Doubles

Jeevan and Purav lost their QF match in straight sets against the Aussie pair of Polmans and Purcell. A bad loss, indeed.
Jeevan and Purav are ranked 88 and 89 in Live rankings now.

[QF] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l. Marc Polmas (AUS) / Max Purcell (AUS) : 6-7, 2-6