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French Open 2020: Prajnesh advances to Round 2, Nagal, Ramkumar exits in Qualifiers
Indian tennis player Prajnesh Gunneswaran overcame a sluggish start to advance to the second round of the French Open men's singles qualifying event but country's top player Sumit Nagal bowed out after a close defeat, here on Monday.
Seeded 16th, Nagal - who became the first Indian in seven years to win a singles match at a Grand Slam with his opening round victory at the US Open - lost 6-7 (4) 5-7 to Germany's seasoned player Dustin Brown in one hour and 47 minutes.
Roland Garros Qualifying : Sumit Nagal bows out to Dustin Brown in a tight match
Sumit was up a break, and had break points to go up two breaks, in both sets
Sumit and Dustin won 82 points each in the match
[QR1] Sumit Nagal l. Dustin Brown 6-7(4) 5-7
— Indian Tennis Daily (@IndTennisDaily) September 21, 2020
Nagal had his chances in the second set as he was leading 3-0 but Brown did not let him continue with the momentum.
Prajnesh, India's second-highest ranked singles player, got the better of Turkey's Cem Ilkel 6-3 6-1 after losing his service early in his opening qualifier of the clay court Grand Slam.
INDIAN NO.2 PRAJNESH GUNNESWARAN THROUGH TO R2
After a sluggish start and being 0-3 down, the Indian No.2 fought his way back to dominate the match by winning 12 of the next 13 games to win the match 63 61 against the 206 ranked Cem Ilkel of Turkey. pic.twitter.com/mWA8wmpkKs
— Indian Tennis Daily (@IndTennisDaily) September 21, 2020
Ramkumar Ramanathan's bid to qualify for his maiden Grand Slam singles main draw fell flat after his straight set defeat against French wild card Tristan Lamasine in the French Open, here. The Indian Davis Cupper, ranked 198, lost 5-7 2-6 to lower-ranked Lamasine in one hour and 27 minutes on Monday. The French is placed 268 on the ranking chart. The 25-year-old Ramkumar was profligate as he squandered as many as seven of the eight breakpoints he earned.
He lost his serve four times in the first round contest. Ramkumar has been trying to crack the Grand Slam main draws since 2015 but has not succeeded yet. Making the third round at the Australian Open qualifiers in 2018 has been his best effort so far. In the women's singles qualifiers, Ankita Raina, ranked 176, will open her campaign against Serbian player Jovana Jovic, ranked 234.
