India’s number one player Prajnesh Gunnasweran is back in familiar surroundings for the ATP Chennai Open Challenger and the stage is set for the 29-year-old to break into the top 100 for the first time.
After making his Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open, Prajnesh had a forgettable outing at the Davis Cup losing both his matches against Italy.
“Coming into the season in October / November, I knew I was playing my best tennis.
“Overall it was a great experience playing the main draw at the Slams and I was knocking on the door a few times,” said Prajnesh.
Speaking about the Davis Cup, Prajnesh said, “I didn’t play great. I tried everything possible to compete and get through the matches. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that. I wasn’t able to step up to the level required. We were also playing a very tough team.”
Keen to put the past behind, the local lad — who is the top seed here — will hope to make a deep run in this tournament as that would set him up for regular participation in ATP Tour events.
“It is one of the goals for the year to be in the top 100 but I know I have enough time to get there.
“The next four months I’m not defending many points, so I should get there eventually as long as I don’t lose in the first round of every tournament I play. But it will be nice to get that mark playing at home,” he added.
When asked if having more tournaments like Challengers would help Indian players move up the rankings, especially with the new rules making it tough for anyone below 300, Prajnesh said while it would not hurt but he would rather have more work done at the grass roots.
“That’s one way to do it (more Challengers in India). But looking at the rankings now, how many Indians are going to get into the Challengers? Everything will help in small amounts be it 10 more Futures and Challengers.
“But I would have rather have better training methods and a higher level of coaches. It’s sort of a system from the ground up.
“It’s not necessarily about the facilities but we need to have coaches who know how to produce good players who can set a benchmark and over a period of time everybody gets better.”
