CHENNAI: Prajnesh Gunneswaran can do no wrong at the moment. After helping India past China in the Davis Cup and winning his first Challenger in April, the 28-year-old progressed into the second round of the French Open qualifiers on Monday.
This is the first time that the World No 183 has won a match at this level. He had failed in both of his two previous tries at Grand Slams — US Open in 2017 and Australian Open in 2018.
The higher-ranked Indian, up against World No 228 Salvatore Caruso, was the favourite and lived up to his billing by dispatching the Italian in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
A large part of the win was down to Gunneswaran’s gun service games. Seven aces, zero double faults, 69% of first serves in and winning 71% of his first serves (Caruso’s figures in all these four metrics was lower).
Gunneswaran, who beat Egypt’s Mohamed Safwat in Anning to win the $150,000 event in the last week of April, will face one of Pedro Martinez or Marcelo Arevalo for a place in the third and final round of qualifying.
Ramkumar, Nagal lose However, it wasn’t all that plain sailing for Indians as 12th seed Ramkumar Ramanathan was dumped out by Britain’s Jay Clarke in three sets.
The unseeded Clarke, who is only 19, played the big points better to upstage the more established pro. Ramkumar, who is yet to appear in the first round of the main draw of a Grand Slam, let himself down by winning just three of the 13 break point opportunities (Clarke won six of 14).
Sumit Nagal lost his match against Slovakia’s Martin Klizan 6-4, 4-6, 1-6. Klizan, who was ranked as high as 24 three years ago, found himself in a pickle but used his experience to advance into the second round. The World No 223, only playing his second match at this level, continued his horrific recent form.
He hasn’t advanced to the second round of any tournament he has played since the last week of March — his recent record reads ‘played four matches, lost four matches’.
Meanwhile, Ankita Raina will open her campaign on Tuesday. The World No 181 (only the fifth Indian women’s player to move inside the top 200 after Sania Mirza, Nirupama Vaidyanathan, Shikha Uberoi and Sunitha Rao) will face Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina. Results Martin Klizan (Svk) bt Sumit Nagal 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Salvatore Caruso (Ita) 6-4, 6-4, Jay Clarke (Uk) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-3, 5-7, 6-1. Tuesday’s match: Ankita Raina vs Evgeniya Rodina.
Nadal regains World No 1 spot ahead of French Open
PARIS: Rafael Nadal regained the number one spot ahead of the French Open in the world rankings on Monday after winning his eighth Rome Masters title. The victory saw Nadal overtake Roger Federer, who is not playing the claycourt season this year. Former number one Novak Djokovic continued his fall, slipping four places to 22nd.