Prajnesh Gunneswaran thread

[PKBasu]

With his surprise run to the singles title in the India F6 Futures this week in Chennai, Prajnesh earns a thread of his own. At 23, he is a late bloomer -- having only made it to 148 as a junior six years ago. But he has ventured overseas quite a lot over the past few months -- after training at the Waske academy in Germany -- and has earned his points mainly the hard way (overseas, in the Czech republic, Kuwait, Sweden. Poland, etc.). The hard grind of playing qualifiers in those far-away places stood him in excellent stead this week, as he pulled off four superb upsets to take the title in style. Congrats to Prajnesh, a new hope emerging in Indian tennis!

[PKBasu]

Prajnesh's path to the title this week:

[R1] d. Hung Jui-Chen (TWN, 1152) 64 57 76(2)
[R2] d. 5-Keith-Patrick Crowley (RSA, 772) 62 64
[QF] d. 4-Toshihide Matsui (JPN, 594) 75 76(3) - Matsui had a career-high ranking of 261
[SF] d. 8-Karunuday Singh (IND, 874) 75 75 - Karunuday beat Adam Feeney (AUS, 299) in making the Thailand Futures final last week, and was among the top US college players this year.
[F] d. 3-Vijayant Malik (IND, 488) 7-6(5) 6-3 - Vijayant beat top seed Sriram Balaji (IND, 335) in the SF.

[ankit1407]

Congratulations to Prajnesh...Hopefully he stays fit and plans his schedule better...

[sameerph]

Yes, he deserves a thread of his own with that futures title in his hometown.

Prejnesh did not have a great junior career but seemed to be on track for a good pro career in 2008 when he did quite well in couple of Spain futures on clay & also reaching SF in a futures in India when he was below 19 years of age.

He tried his hand at US college tennis when he joined Univesity of Tennesse but left college within a year after deciding to turn pro. He started training in Scheultteler Waske acadamy in Germany but was badly affected by some injuries which meant that he did not play any pro tennis for 3 years from 2009 to 2011.

He started playing in Europe around August last year & did well starting with couple of futures in Poland & reaching SF of a futures in Kuwait. But, it appeared that his injury problems have not totally disappeared as he retired after being tied up 1 set all in 2 of his matches. Then, after another break of 6 months, he started playing again last month with futures in Sweden & Czech Republic.

Hopefully, the injury worries are now behind him & in that case , he should move up quite quickly based on his results this week & earlier in Europe. From the photos, he appears quite tall (much taller than most of the current Indian players) & is also left handed. So, he will have some natural advantages in serve & some areas in his game. Hope he can use them well & makes a successful pro career after a slow start.

[sameerph]

Balaji pulled of this week's German futures. So, only Prajnesh this week & we can discuss this in his thread.

At $10K Germany F9 Futures, Hannover

[R1] (5) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,639) vs. (Q) Julian ONKEN (GER,1722)

[sameerph]

Prajnesh won thru first round in 3 sets.

At $10K Germany F9 Futures, Hannover

[R1] (5) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,639) d. (Q) Julian ONKEN (GER,1722) 62 36 61

Next,

[R2] (5) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,639) vs. Jaan-Frederik BRUNKEN (FIN,780)

[Omkara]

At $10K Germany F9 Futures, Hannover

[R2] Jaan-Frederik BRUNKEN (FIN) bt Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND) [5] 6-2 4-6 6-2

So Prajnesh lost to a lower ranked player

[sameerph]

At $10K Denmark F2, Aarhus ( clay)

[R1] (3) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,627) d. (Q) Oystein STEIRO (NOR) 64 57 64

Next,

[R2] (3) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,627) vs. Mauricio ALVAREZ-GUZMAN (CHI,1414)

[sameerph]

At $10K Denmark F2, Aarhus ( clay)


[R2] (3) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,627) d. Mauricio ALVAREZ-GUZMAN (CHI,1414) 61 61

Nice dominating win by Prajnesh.

[sameerph]

Another dominating win by Prajnesh over the 5th seed to move to the SF.

At $10K Denmark F2, Aarhus (clay)

[QF] (3) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,627) d. (5) George VON MASSOW (GER,715) 62 61

Next,

[SF] (3) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,627) vs. Fred SIMONSSON (SWE,1532)

Simonsson is an 18 year upstart on the tour who had not made it past QF at futures level before this week. But, he seems to be having his best week so far beating 7th seed in the first round & top seed Tak Khunn Wang in the QF. Hope Prajnesh stops his progress in SF this time.

[arjun2761]

Nice run by Prajnesh especially on European red clay!

[PKBasu]

Yes, good to see Prajnesh live up to his seeding this week. He has been consistent in his forays into European clay, and they will surely help his game in the medium-term.

[Varma]

The score in his QF win against a (somewhat closely ranked) Eurpoean is reason enough to make us smile ear to ear . That it came on red clay is even more impressive.

Simonsson is just 18, so he can be content with those couple of wins against his seeded opponents. Time for him to get carried away and let Prajnesh have a shot at the title

- Varma

[Omkara]

Finally after following performance of so many players in Europe / Africa we have one good result. Hope he gets a shot at the title.

[Saniapower]

At $10K Denmark F2, Aarhus (clay)

[SF] (3) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,627) d. Fred Simonson (SWE,1532) 6-4 7-5