French Open 2019 | Prajnesh Gunneswaran bows out in opening round
Prajnesh Gunneswaran, India’s top-ranked men’s tennis player, suffered a disappointing first round exit in the ongoing French Open at the hands of Bolivia's Hugo Dellien on Sunday. Gunneswaran fell to a 1-6, 3-6, 1-6 loss at the hands of the Bolivian in a match that lasted for just over an hour.
India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran made his first Grand Slam main draw appearance at the Australian Open earlier this year. He topped that off with a career-high ATP ranking of 75 last month. However, despite the recent success on the international stage, Gunneswaran suffered a first-round exit at the Grand Slam.
The Indian player came into the French Open with little practice on clay and Dellien capitalised on the the same as he raced to a 4-1 lead before breaking the Gunneswaran’s serve again to pocket the first set 6-1.
Prajnesh looked better in the second set and held on until 3-3, but Dellien kept his calm and broke the Indian in the seventh game. The Bolivian kept his serve and broke to claim the second set 6-3.
In the third set, Dellien staged successive breaks to take a 2-1 lead and went on to win the next four games to seal a comfortable win in a match that went on for an hour and 18 minutes. Dellien will next face sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round, who defeated Joe Marterer 6-2, 6-7, 7-6 (4).
