Indian Wells/Miami ATP 1000, March 2019

[sameerph]

Prajnesh and RamK playing qualifying at both Indian Wells and Miami. Indian Wells draw came out -

[Q1] (9) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,97) vs. Jason Jung (TPE,132)

[Q1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,136) vs. (15) Philip Krajinovic (SRB,113)

Krajinovic is very tough, reached third round of Australian open and had a career high of 26 last April. From their his ranking has fallen due to about 4 months injury absence last year and not so great results after coming back. But, still he looks underranked.

Jung has got into good form in last few weeks and beat RamK a couple of weeks back and beat Krajinovic last week.

[suresh]

Solid win for Prajnesh.

[Q1] (9) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,97) d Jason Jung (TPE,132) 7-5 6-4

[jaydeep]

A really good win for Prajnesh ... In the final qualifying round, he is facing the Italian Salvatore Caruso, who won the match when his senior compatriot Paolo Lorenzi retired in the first set ... A good opportunity for Prajnesh to qualify for his first Masters' main draw.

The match is suspended due to rain after Ram lost the first set against Krajinovic.

[Q1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,136) vs (15) Philip Krajinovic (SRB,113) 4-6 match suspended

[Q2] (9) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,97) vs Salvatore Caruso (ITA,168)

[jaydeep]

In the doubles, Rohan is playing with Shapo and they r facing the 2nd seeds Soares and Murray.

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Denis Shapovalov (CAN) vs (2) Jamie Murray (GBR)/ Bruno Soares (BRA)

[sameerph]

Nice win for Prajnesh. He is 1-1 head to head against Caruso both the match were in consecutive weeks last May- Prajnesh winning in Q1 of French open while losing to him in first round of a challenger the week after ( when he was mostly reeling from disappointment of missing the chance to make the French open main draw ). I think Prajnesh has a great chance here to make his first masters main draw.

[Ullhas]

Only 4 seeds above Prajnesh left into qualifying draw. Assuming even 50% of them win qualifying match; Prajnesh has solid chances of LL. But obviously that is required only if he loses his qualifying match. Hope to avoid another LL roller coaster for the Gunner.

[sameerph]

Ramk lost his match tamely after resumption.

[Q1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,136) l. (15) Philip Krajinovic (SRB,113) 46 06

Krajinovic is a top 50 level player. So, loss is not surprising. But, scoreline is disappointing. It does not seems like there was any fight by RamK.

[knarayen]

Gunner vs Caruso - Final Qualifying round

Set 1
Gunner leads 5-2 and serving for the set - easy going so far but I am pretty sure Caruso will try and come back strong in the second
Gunner is serving well - 5 aces thus far.
Wins serve game with some good serving and set 6-2

Set 2
Caruso holds his serve 1-0 - after being down break point.He is fighting back now, Gunner has to stay on top and keep the pressure.
Gunner serve 0-1. Holds easily 1-1.
Caruso serve - Gunner is holding high first serve percentage (75) and leading on 2nd serve win points. Ahead also on Caruso 2nd serve win points. All good. Caruso holds to 2-1.
Gunner serve 1-2. holds at 30 - Caruso's percentages are getting better - but Gunner is staying ahead which is good. 2-2
Caruso serve 2-2. Caruso holds at 30, 3-2 The games are getting closer - Gunner needs to stay ahead - maintain the high first serve percentage.
Gunner serve 2-3. 3-3. Gunner holds at 15. First serve % going down slightly to 73. He needs to say above 70 for the duration.
Caruso serve 3-3. 4-3, Caruso holds at 0. Caruso first serve % steadily going up - now at 58. Also winning more first serve points, so Gunner needs to keep the pressure here.
Gunner serve 3-4. 3-5. broken at 15. Looks like Caruso stepped up after Gunner DF at 15-15. Probably pressed too much on the serve - this was what I was afraid of. Gunner needs to keep his head and fight back to stay in the set. Important to fight back and not cave in. Caruso definitely back in the match.
Caruso serve 5-3. Holds and wins set at 6-3. This is going into the 3rd set and will be tight all the way from the looks of it.

Set 3
Gunner serve - 1-0. holds at 30 after losing one hold point. Caruso now leads on 2nd serve return points won (54-48) -- an important statistic. Gunner needs to improve on Caruso's second serve return wins - this will put pressure
Caruso serve 0-1 Gunner breaks at ad out to lead 2-0 - after Caruso served DF - Gunner 2nd serve return % now better than Caruso (54-50%) !!
Gunner serve 2-0 Physio called to court (don't know by whom). If Caruso did this then you know that this is the usual stall to regroup.

[knarayen]

Wow I had to take a meeting break and got back to find the Gunner had won the third set 6-2 and the match.

Great news. Onward to the first round!!

[Sin Hombre]

Prajnesh justifying his top 100 ranking again. Moves to live ranking of #91.

[PKBasu]

Great stuff from Prajnesh to qualify into a Masters event quite easily, apart from a hiccup late in the second set.
With his live ranking at 91, Prajnesh is all but certain to automatically make it into the main draw of the French Open and Wimbledon, which will help his finances greatly -- and, with just a win or two in the main draw, take him into a completely different level of rankings and playing opportunities.

[Dinesh]

Plays Ben Paire next.

[PKBasu]

[R1] Q-Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND, 97) vs. Benoit Paire (FRA, 69).
The winner will play Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO, 18) in R2.

and, in doubles, Bopanna is pairing up with Denis Shapovalov:

[R1] Rohan Bopanna/Denis Shapovalov (IND/CAN) vs. 2-Jaime Murray/Bruno Soares (GBR/BRA)

[sameerph]

Yes, great to see that Prajnesh is now saving his best performance at the big events. His best 2 performances this year so far have been to qualify into Australian open and now IW masters. In between he has been below par at challenger level. It is ok as long as he performs when it matters most.

With his live ranking at 91, Prajnesh is all but certain to automatically make it into the main draw of the French Open and Wimbledon, which will help his finances greatly -- and, with just a win or two in the main draw, take him into a completely different level of rankings and playing opportunities.

French open is confirmed, but not yet Wimbledon. He has big 140 points falling off toward end of April. He is about 50 points above 100th ranking spot. So, he will need to get around 80-90 points at least in next 2 months to stay near or inside top 100 as at Wimbledon cut-off date.

[S_K_S]

It's not the worst of draws. Paire ranked 61 at entry and the last direct entry was ranked 86. The highest ranked player that Paire has beaten this year has been Vesely at 89 back at Pune. Might be a tough 3 setter for Prajnesh. Let's hope he is on the right side of the result.

IW is becoming my favourite tournament. Last year we had the joy of watch Yuki with his "bahut badhiya" fan club. Let's hope this year is as good.

Prajnesh play on Court 3. 4th match on the court. Maybe around 4pm local time is my guess. 00.00GMT Fri 8/3/5.30am on Fri 8/3 IST.