CHENNAI: Exactly 365 days ago, Prajnesh Gunneswaran had landed in the tennis outpost of Chandigarh to take part in a low-level Futures event. The then World No 235 took the title and prize money of $2160. He faced Goran Markovic (World No 959 then), Thales Turini (1022), Dalwinder Singh (1041), Manuel Pena Lopez (656) and Nam Hoang Ly (475) en route becoming champion. Because of the newly-introduced rules that kicked in at the beginning of 2018, the then 28-year-old received zero ranking points. One may have forgiven the Tamil Nadu lad, playing in his first-ever Masters tournament, for wondering if this was going to be his new tennis postcode.
The next year has thrown that particular idea out of the window. On Saturday night, Gunneswaran scaled another first — beating a top-20 player for the first time. He beat Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (4) in the second round of the Indian Wells Masters to continue his dream run. And the way he beat the World No 17 will please him no end. After he took the first set 6-4, he allowed the 27-year-old a route back into the match. He should have completed the affair there and then but a momentary lapse in concentration ensured that Basilashvili took the second in the tie-break. The Indian again had the lead in the third stanza — 5-3 on his serve — but frittered opportunities before regaining composure in the tie-break.
So what’s changed for the Indian, who is managing chronic tendonitis on both his knees? His injury is one of the main reasons why he is a late bloomer; he lost close to five years to injury before finally becoming a regular fixture on the circuit in 2017. He changed his training methodologies to adapt his body to years of injuries. Once that fell in line, he decided to adopt a game based more on power rather than playing the waiting game.
“I want to inject more pace into my game and be more attacking from the baseline rather than just stretching points and ralleys... it is a high-risk strategy but I think that will work the best for me,” he had told this newspaper after his 2018 season.
Beat the big-serving Ivo Karlovic on Monday and Gunneswaran will put a tick mark against another first — first Indian since Somdev Devvarman to feature in the fourth round of a Masters series (2011 Indian Wells).
Bopanna/Shapovalov beat No 2 seeds
India’s Rohan Bopanna, partnering Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, got the better off Bruno Soares and Jamie Murray 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the second round.
They will next face the unseeded scratch pair of Novak Djokovic and Fabio Fognini. Bopanna is not with his regular partner Divij Sharan, as they were of the opinion that they wouldn’t have managed to secure a spot in the draw together.