After a splendid 2018, where he came close to making the main draw of a Major, Prajnesh Gunneswaran finally achieved the dream by beating Yosuke Watanuki 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 in the third and final round of qualifying to enter the Australian Open main draw. The Indian will face World No. 39 Frances Tiafoe of USA in the first round.
The Chennai lad, ranked 112 in the world, had a chance last year to make his Grand Slam debut at the French Open as a lucky loser. But he decided to head to Italy and play another tournament, thereby forfeiting the chance of making his debut in Paris.
But this time, the 29-year-old did not need any such luck, as he got the job done on merit by overcoming the Japanese in 2 hours and 10 minutes.
Speaking to The Hindu from Melbourne, Prajnesh said, “I am very blessed to pursue my dream of playing tennis and obviously it is a big thing. This is just the beginning. There was a lot of pressure obviously after coming close last year but I knew I was good enough to be here.”
The left-hander had beaten Viktor Galovic 6-4, 6-4 and Enrique Lopez Perez 6-3, 6-3 in the first two rounds of qualifying.
Good but no so good
Explaining about his week so far, Prajnesh said, “the first match was not great it but I felt I played really well in the second. Again today, it was so-so but I was mentally tough and fought hard. I was ahead in the first set but lost it. But I stayed strong, getting the break early in the second and third set and kept pushing him. I am playing my best tennis even though these were not my best matches. ”
Currently, the highest ranked Indian, Prajhnesh had an outside chance of making the cut-off for the main draw had he won the Pune Challenger last year, where he lost to Elias Ymer in the final.
“After the Pune event, I had a chance to play in the Australian Open playoff tournament but I decided against it so that I could rest and have a good preparation not just for this tournament but for the whole of 2019. I was confident in myself and sometimes you need to grind it out,” he added.
