Prajnesh Gunneswaran thread

[PKBasu]

Interesting (and correct) decision to play a Challenger rather than pick up easier points in the low-level India Futures.

[Rajiv]

And he makes a good start with a straight sets win over the Filipino 7-5 ,6-4

[sameerph]

Yes, decent start playing after some time.

At $50K(+H) Kyoto Challenger, Japan

[Q1] (5) GUNNESWARAN, Prajnesh (IND,319) d. GONZALES, Ruben (PHI,922) 75 64

Next,

[Q2] (5) GUNNESWARAN, Prajnesh (IND,319) vs. WATANUKI, Yusuke (JPN,778)

[Rajiv]

The winning scoreline keeps getting better , prevails 6-2 , 6-4 , over his Japanese opponent

[sameerph]

Yes, good to see him slowly getting into groove. These Japanese indoor courts can take some time getting used to.

He faces a tough one next up.

At $50K(+H) Kyoto Challenger, Japan

[Q2] (5) GUNNESWARAN, Prajnesh (IND,319) d. WATANUKI, Yusuke (JPN,778) 62 64

Next,

[Q3] (5) GUNNESWARAN, Prajnesh (IND,319) vs. (1) Lloyd HARRIS (RSA,294)

The South African seems a consistent performer who has won a string of futures last year. So, Prajnesh will have to play at his best.

[bujilover]

Besides, Lloyd Harris served 26 aces in his last 2 Qualifying round matches, looks like a tough challenge indeed. Prajnesh has to be at his best

[Rajiv]

A straight sets loss 4-6, 6-7 , to the Top seed. and watched the match , as the South African totally dominated with his power play for which Pragnesh had no answers and was all at sea against the constant bombardment.

[sameerph]

I watched the end of the match. Prajnesh was 4-1 up in the tie break and should not have given up that advantage. Also tried a drop shot when mp down and put it in the net.

The court looked ultra fast though and would have favoured a bigger server.

[Saniapower]

He is very poor at the net and when going get tough he becomes clueless and very error prone.

[Abish arul]

He hardly plays doubles that's why

[sameerph]

A straight sets loss 4-6, 6-7 , to the Top seed. and watched the match , as the South African totally dominated with his power play for which Pragnesh had no answers and was all at sea against the constant bombardment.

The South African has upset the top seed Sunita and reached the SF.So, he seems to be good indeed.

Prajnesh is not in qualies draw at Yoklohoma next week. I wonder why he came back after just 1 week.

[IndianTennisFan]

He got a wild card into qualifying for the Dubai ATP500 !

[bujilover]

Yep! And he plays 6th seed Marius Copil in Round 1. Not an easy match.

[sameerph]

Prajnesh lost in first round of qualifying easily.

Jeevan won the first round of doubles qualies and our 2 more pairs are in doubles main draw. So, let us open a thread for that.

[sameerph]

Prajnesh is at a new career high ranking of 276 this week. He has already earned 5 points for this week by qualifying into $150K(+H) Anning Challenger. So, he will go up further in next week's rankings.

In fact there seems to be a close tussle as of now for India #1 between RamK and Prajnesh. RamK is now ranked 264 with 192 points and Prajnesh now at 188 points after adding this weeks's points. If Prajnesh wins R1 at Anning and RamK loses in Tallahassee, Prajnesh will overtake RamK as India #1. Yuki is close third at 285 with of course much lower number of tournaments played.