Prajnesh crashes out of French Open qualifiers

Paris, September 23

India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran crashed out in the second round of the men’s singles qualifiers of the French Open after losing in straight sets to Aleksandar Vukic of Australia here on Wednesday.

Prajnesh, India’s second-highest ranked singles player got the better of Turkey’s Cem Ilkel in the opening round but lost 4-6 6-7(4) against Vukic to bow out of the event.

The other two Indians in the fray – the country’s top singles player Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan – bowed out in the first round of the qualifying event.

While the 16th seed 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 Dustin Brown, Ramanathan went down 5-7 2-6 to Tristan Lamasine. PTI