India’s Top Ranked Tennis Player Prajnesh Gunneswaran Eliminated From KPIT-MSLTA Challenger

India’s top ranked tennis star Prajnesh Gunneswaran has crashed out of the KPIT-MSLTA Challenger taking place in Pune. Sumit Nagal, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sasi Kumar Mukund have advanced to the quarterfinals of the event.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran, the only Indian in the top 100 of the single’s world rankings in the men’s category, was defeated at the hands of Tim Van Rijthoven of Netherlands.

The 22 year old Dutch took two hours and 10 minutes to show the door to the world no. 95 as he won the match with the scoreline of 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Although Gunneswaran was disappointed with the defeat, but he insisted in his post-match interview that he was content with his performance as he gave his 100 percent.

The 30-year old, however, looked a bit unhappy about his recent schedule. According to Gunneswaran, non-stop tennis in the last little while hasn’t helped his body at all.

“Till April, I played a lot of tournaments non-stop. This initially put pressure in my shoulders which later came on to my wrist. Had I taken a few more breaks early in the year, I could have finished better.” Gunneswaran was quoted saying after the game.

Sumit Nagal, who has also been included in the Indian Davis Cup squad for the upcoming tie against the arch rivals Pakistan, made his way to the quarterfinals after his opponent from Russia Ivan Nedelko pulled out of the match due to lower back pain.

Nagal will now be up against his compatriot Ramanathan who registered an easy straight set win over the Turkish player Cem Ilkel.

Sasikumar Mukund is another Indian who will be seen in action in the quarterfinals after he registered a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Manish Sureshkumar.

In the men’s doubles category, the Indian pair of Arjun Kadhe and Saketh Myneni earned a hard fought victory against the Russian duo of Bogdan Bobrov and Ivan Nedelko.

 

 

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