Prajnesh moves to second round of Australian Open Qualifiers 

By PTI

MELBOURNE: India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran knocked out third seed Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan from the Australian Open Qualifiers with a straight-set victory, here on Monday.

Ranked 221, left-handed Prajnesh beat 119th ranked Galan 6-4 6-4 in one hour and 13 minutes in the first round at court number six of Melbourne Park.

He will next take on the winner of the match between Germany’s Maximilian Marterer and Croatia’s Nino Serdarusic.

Prajnesh hit a crushing backhand winner from the middle of the court to open up a break opportunity in the third game of the opening set and converted the second chance with a deep return that Galan sent on the net with his forehand.

With similar style and strategy, both the players were trying to make deep returns and dispatched the short balls for easy winners.

It was about who did it more consistently. 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 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 the 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 breakpoint when he was serving for the match as he hit a forehand long at 30-30 but saved that with a good serve.

Again, he hit a forehand soaring over the baseline with nerves perhaps getting the better of him.

However, he saved that break chance too with a booming serve.

He eventually, finished the match with an easy winner in open court with Galan stranded on one flank of the court.

Ramkumar Ramanathan and Yuki Bhambri are also in contention and will open their respective campaigns in men’s singles qualifiers on Tuesday, while Ankita Raina will make yet another to crack women’s singles main draw.