French Open | It’s definitely a milestone but would’ve liked results differently, says Prajnesh Gunneswaran

This was a huge occasion for Gunneswaran who finally made it to the finals of the French Open after coming agonizingly close to getting into the Grand Slam last year via the lucky loser system. By the time, his name had come, the Indian had already left the French capital to play a Challenger and Marco Trungelliti took his place.

This year, however, the case was different as he directly qualified for the main draw. However, it amounted to nothing as he bowed out losing 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 in the very first match. The tennis ace didn’t seem very upset about the fact and tried to look at the positive side.

“It’s definitely a milestone. I’ve worked a long time to get to this place and obviously I would’ve liked a different result today. But it’s not the end of the world and I just have to keep getting better, put my head down and keep working. That’s what got me this far and I’m hoping that it will continue,” said Gunneswaran, reported Scroll.

The world No 86 also expressed the difficulties a tennis player has to face to make it to the top from India for the lack of craze the country has for the sport. He was also of the opinion that India would need some kind of a superstar form tennis to give it the traction it needs.

“It definitely is more difficult to break through [coming from India] when you don’t have as a good a system or as much competition,” he said.

“In my case I think the main reason I took this long was because I was injured for a long time so it took me four or five more years than it might have taken had I not had the injury.

“I think the kind of breakthrough we’re talking about would have to be some kind of superstar – not someone who is top 100 or 80 in the world, it’ll have to be someone who’s top 10. Someone like a [Japan’s Kei] Nishikori, but from India.”