Australian Open | Prajnesh Gunneswaran qualifies for the main draw

Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who also won the bronze medal at last year’s Asian Games in Jakarta & Palembang, will participate in the first Grand Slam of his career after he made it through the qualifiers in Australia. The 29-year old Indian athlete, who was seeded sixth in the qualifying rounds, defeated Japanese player Yosuke Watanuki in the third round of the qualifiers to secure a spot in the main draw of the upcoming Australia Open.

The left-handed player defeated Watanuki by a scoreline of 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-4 in a match that lasted two hours and 10 minutes. The Indian displayed great character after having initially lost the first set in a tie-breaker by bouncing back in style and made his Japanese counterpart pay for his mistakes on the court. 

Previously, the top-ranked Indian from Chennai beat Enrique López Pérez 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the third and final round of qualifying stage of the first Grand Slam of the calendar year. Prajnesh was clinical against the Spaniard and won the match in just 74 minutes. He then claimed an equally easy win over Croatia’s Victor Galovic in the first round and looks to be in good form.

Earlier, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Ankita Raina bowed out of the qualifiers after they lost their respective three-setters in the second round of qualifying on Thursday.