Australian Open | Prajnesh Guneswaran makes a winning start in qualifiers

The sixth-seeded player had it very easy in his opening game against the Croatian as he won 6-4, 6-4 in straight sets. It was a clinical performance by the Indian who secured one break point in each set and was impeccable in his serves.

He made zero double faults in comparison to Galovic’s four and win 69% of his first serves, which eventually turned out to be the difference. Gunneswaran also outplayed his Croatian counterpart at the net where he won 92% of the points compared to Galovic. He had 21 winners compared to the Croatian’ 16. 

All in all, this was one of those perfect displays by the 29-year-old who would want to repeat it in the next round where the ATP ranked 112 would be facing the 139th ranked Enrique Lopez Perez. Gunneswaran had also clinched the bronze medal in men’s singles at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and is currently the top-ranked Indian singles player.

Apart from him, India also has Ankita Raina and Ramkumar Ramanathan playing in the singles category. While Raina will take on Spain’s Paula Badosa Gibert, Ramanathan will be taking on Germany’s Rudolf Molleker. After clinching the Tata Open title alongside Divij Sharan, Rohan Bopanna would also be one of India’s biggest hope in the tournament in the doubles category after he went to the final in the men’s doubles category.