Prajnesh Gunneswaran exits Australian Open after first round loss

Prajnesh Gunneswaran bowed out of the Australian Open in the first round after losing to Japan's Tatsuma Ito in straight sets. Gunneswaran lost 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 in a match that went on for two hours and one minute.

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Straight set loss

Gunneswaran had not qualified for the tournament after losing in the final round of the qualifiers but was able to compete after qualifying as a lucky loser. Ito also qualified for the main draw via a wildcard.

Gunneswaran, who is India's top-ranked men's singles player and ranked 123 in the world, was not able to stamp his authority on his opponent who is ranked 23 places below him. He was broken in the second serve itself and could not recover from there in the first set. The second set was a repetition of the first game. 

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The third set provided some hope for him to make a comeback in the match after he broke Ito's first service and raced to a 3-0 lead. However, Gunneswaran squandered the lead and allowed the Japanese to make a comeback and seal the match.

Gunneswaran was the sole Indian player in the category, after Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan both lost in the first round of their respective qualifiers.

This was Gunneswaran's fifth consecutive Grand Slam after the 30-year-old made his debut on the big stage in Melbourne last year. He has never gone past the first round of a Grand Slam yet and will be hoping to end the poor record soon. 

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