Prajnesh Gunneswaran

By Saurabh Singh | AITA

Indian tennis players are slowly getting back to professional tennis action at various tournaments being organised in Europe this week.

One of them is the leading women’s player Ankita Raina, ranked 166th on the WTA singles ranking, who won her maiden match after the COVID-19 outbreak halted global tennis in March.

Playing her second tournament after the unprecedented break, Raina beat Japan’s Kyoka Okamura in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 to enter round two of the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour’s W25 Prague 2020.

Ramkumar Ramanathan gave his all before losing while Prajnesh Gunneswaran squndered chances galore in his match as India conceded a 0-2 lead in the World Group Play-off tie against Serbia here on Friday.

Ramkumar battled hard but it was not enough to stop Laslo Djere from winning his first Davis Cup match. The Indian lost 6-3 4-6 6-7(2) 2-6 after intense three hour and 11 minutes on the indoor clay courts at Kraljevo Sports Venue.

Djere, ranked 86, had lost both his Davis Cup matches before clashing with Ramkumar, ranked 135.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran settled for bronze in men's singles tennis event at Asian Games 2018 after he lost his semi-final match to Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin in Jakarta on Friday. Prajnesh became only the sixth India to win a men's singles medal at the Asian Games.Prajnesh, who is ranked 161st in the world, fought hard but went down 2-6, 2-6 to world No.75 Istomin in 86 minutes. Prajnesh was no match to the strength and power of Istomin.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran did his growing confidence a world of good by winning the singles title in the $150,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Anning, China, on Sunday.

By overcoming a poor finish in the first set, with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Mohamed Safwat of Egypt, the 28-year-old Prajnesh won his maiden Challenger title, in his second final at this level.

It was the second title of the season for Prajnesh who had won the Futures in Chandigarh before the Davis Cup tie against China in which he won the decisive fifth rubber against Yibing Wu in Tianjin.

Davis Cupper Prajnesh Gunneswaran outplayed eighth seed Kwon Soonwoo of Korea 6-2, 6-3 to make the semifinals of the $150,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Anning, China, on Friday.

In the semifinals, Prajnesh will play Kamil Majchrzak of Poland.

Qualifier Sasi Kumar Mukund, however, was beaten 6-2, 6-4 by third seed Jordan Thompson of Australia.
Mukund collected $4,380 and 30 ATP points, which included five points for qualification.