Nothing happened overnight, says French Open debutant Prajnesh Gunneswaran
Top-ranked Indian tennis star Prajnesh Gunneswaran would be making his debut in French Open this year and has stated that his progress from last year to now hasn’t happened overnight. Gunneswaran would be facing Marco Dellien on Sunday and might be facing World no.6 Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Last year this time, Gunneswaran saw himself bowing out of the same tournament on a 'lucky loser' spot and this year, he has got into it by the merit. Last year, the Indian won the bronze medal in singles at the Asian Games, which meant he missed the US open, before qualifying for the Australian Open in January.
Being a first-round entrant for the Grand Slam now will be guaranteeing him about $50,000 as prize money. While it would be a momentous occasion for the Indian, he stressed that he had to work hard for it and was focusing on the next match and nothing else.
"I am quite happy with the progress I have made so far, both in terms of my rank and the standard of my tennis. I made a conscious effort to try and switch to more Challengers so that I could adjust to that level. It took some time, but I eventually started to get the results that I had wanted. It didn’t happen overnight", said Prajnesh, reported Sportstar.
The Indian has received a lot of support throughout his journey from the likes of Alexander Waske Tennis-University and coach Balachandran Manikkath and he was quick to acknowledge them.
"I have had support from Waske Tennis University right from the start. I didn’t travel with a coach from them all the time, but I did so, often. That was my constant training base. I also did some weeks with Balachandran Manikkath towards the end of last year. We had some good results", said Prajnesh.
The road, of course, would only get tougher from here on for Gunneswaran and he is also looking at a possible second-round meeting with Tsitsipas that only adds to his determination. He also revealed that he has a great chance of breaking into the top-50 now.
"The Top-50 is definitely achievable since I have put myself in a position to compete in the bigger tournaments which in turn means that I play for bigger points. I am more interested in continuing to improve my game as that is what would give me a chance to succeed consistently at this level", concluded Prajnesh.
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