Tennis Asian Games 2018, Indonesia - Jakarta Palembang 2018

[PKBasu]

We seem to be under-performing heavily in Asiad tennis this year. In theory, Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND, 161) should comfortably beat Soonwoo Kwon (KOR, 273). But Kwon does have a career-high of 168, not too far from Prajnesh's own career-high of 152, so the close first set was explicable. Let's hope Prajnesh is able to rebound.

[jayakris]

Prajnesh tied it up with a timely break late in the second set. 67(2) 64 00 ... But he drops serve in the 2nd game... Now 0-2 in the third. Breaks back... Now 2-3 on serve. But Broken once more... 2-4 in the third. Need to dig down deep right now, Prajnesh!

And Prajnesh breaks back once again! Now on serve in the third at 3-4... Saved a BP and held serve... 67(2) 64 44 ... Up at 0-30 on Kwon's serve, but he holds after a deuce. 4-5 and Prajnesh serving to extend the match. Praj holds at 30 for 5-5 in the third. Now it is really crunch time for a medal.

[sameerph]

Kwon is cramping up now Prajnesh must take advantage of this.

[jayakris]

Kwon holds at 40-30 and it is 5-6. Prajnesh to serve to send it to a TB. 40-30... now deuce. Damn, ad-out match point .. saved; deuce. Prajnesh hold.. We go to a tiebreaker to assure a medal.

Sameer, please give some updates on the tiebreaker. I don't trust the scoreboard page.

[depleter]

Kwon holds at 40-30 and it is 5-6. Prajnesh to serve to send it to a TB. 40-30... now deuce. Damn, ad-out match point .. saved; deuce. Prajnesh hold.. We go to a tiebreaker to assure a medal.

Lucky point on the match point as Korean's raquet strings went out.

TB 2-1 on serve
with 2 breaks it's 4-1 on our side...5-1 ... 5-2...6-2 match point...6-3....6-4.....a loose shot and 6-5....6-6

[Rajiv]

whats the score ? ? ?
score board has frozen ..

[sameerph]

Prajnesh stated cramping up at 3-6 in tie break and just rolled the ball in on his 2 serves .

Got back to 6-6 and it has started raining now . Everything is happening.

[jayakris]

The scoreboard has a software bug. It is supposed to show scores like 6-2 in the parenthesis but calculates that and shows the difference, as I just figured out. So we saw up to (4) and then it disappeared as we lost 4 points in a row.

[depleter]

whats the score ? ? ?
score board has frozen ..

6-6..Prajnesh may have taken a time out and now rain is falling

[jayakris]

My God... Rain, right after we wasted 4 match point to earn a medal? What else can wrong?

It is 3 am. I am going to go to sleep. I will just hope that Prajnesh will come back and win 2 points more than Kwon.

[VReddy]

My God... Rain, right after we wasted 4 match point to earn a medal? What else can wrong?

Actually based on the social media commentary, it may have come at the right time. It appears that Prajnesh couldn't just walk anymore. Given that he was just rolling the serve and not moving (like that Saketh US Open match), he would have likely lost the next 2 points. So atleast this break will allow him to compete a bit when it resumes

[sameerph]

Yes, Prajnesh had started badly cramping up on last 3 points there. So, probably good or him that it started raining at that point but he should have finished the match on one of those 4 match points.

But, it was not easy with the way he was moving.

[jayakris]

Okay, then... The match is 3 hours 3 min long already, so crazy things happen. I guess Prajnesh gets to serve next, and Kwon after that, so it is all rather even, if he gets past his cramp.

[VReddy]

And he wins! Thankfully the rain break came in, phew.

[kaustav]

Has there any gas left for Prajnesh for tomorrow ? I believe he can do it.

Prajnesh won 4-6,6-4,7-6(8-6)