US Open 2021: Prajnesh Gunneswaran advances to second round of qualifiers

India’s top-ranked tennis player Prajnesh Gunneswaran progressed to the second round of the US Open qualifiers with a straight set win over Brayden Schnur of Canada in New York. Gunneswaran got the better of the world no. 232 Canadian 6-4, 7-6 in one hour 37 minutes on Wednesday night.

The 31-year-old Indian will lock horns with American Christopher Eubanks in the next round.

Gunneswaran had qualified for the main draw of the tournament in 2019, when he had gone down to Russia’s Danil Medvedev in the opening round.

The world no 156 is the only Indian left in the men's singles qualifiers as Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan made opening round exits. Ankita Raina also exited after losing her first round in women's singles qualifiers to American Jamie Loeb.

Both Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan lost their respective first round singles matches to make an exit from the US Open qualifiers. Nagal lost 5-7, 6-4, 3-6 to Argentina’s Juan Pablo Ficovich in two hours and 22 minutes on Tuesday night.

Nagal had played in the Australian Open main draw early this year and had lost in the first round. He could not qualify for the French Open and missed the Wimbledon qualifiers due to an unrevealed injury.

Ramkumar frittered away a one-set advantage to lose 6-4, 6-7(1), 4-6 to Russia’s Evgeny Donskoy in two hours and 35 minutes in his opening round. It was Ramkumar’s 21st attempt to qualify for the singles main draw of a Grand Slam since 2014.