Prajnesh Gunneswaran beat 119th ranked Daniel Elahi Galan 6-4 6-4 in one hour and 13 minutes in the first round of Australian Open qualifiers at court number six of the Melbourne Park. Gunneswaran knocked out third seed Colombian from the tournament with a straight set victory on Monday (January 10). He moved into the second round of the Australian Open Qualifiers.
Prajnesh hit a backhand winner from the middle of the court to open up a break opportunity in the third game of the first set and converted the second chance with a deep return that Galan sent on the net with his forehand. Both the players with similar style and strategy were trying to make deep returns and dispatched the short balls for easy winners.
Prajnesh's better service games stood him in good stead. The break stayed with the Indian and he served the opening set at love. Prajnesh then broke his rival's service in the very first game of the second set. At 30-30, Galan hit a backhand wide and then failed to put the ball across the net on breakpoint.
The southpaw made it 2-0 when Galan hit a forehand on the net, although Prajnesh made it a bit difficult for himself, letting his rival take two points after going up 40-0. Prajnesh found himself down a break point when he was serving for the match as he hit a forehand long at 30-30 but saved that with a good serve. Prajnesh hit a forehand over the baseline with nerves perhaps getting the better of him. He saved that break chance too with a booming serve.
Eventually, he finished the match with an easy winner in open court with Galan stranded on one flank of the court. Ranked 221, Prajnesh will take on the winner of the match between Germany's Maximilian Marterer and Croatia's Nino Serdarusic in his next encounter.
Ramkumar Ramanathan and Yuki Bhambri are also in contention and will open their campaigns in men's singles qualifiers on Tuesday (January 11). Ankita Raina will make yet another to crack women's singles main draw.
