Australian Open: India's Prajnesh Gunneswaran enters main draw of Grand Slam for the first time

India men’s No. 1 Prajnesh Gunneswaran has qualified for the main draw of the Grand Slam men’s singles for the first time in his career. He will play Frances Tiafoe in his very first Grand Slam main draw match.

The left-hander defeated Yosuke Watanuki 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-4 in the third round of the Australia Open qualifiers to proceed for the big tournament.

Prajnesh who was seeded sixth in the qualifiers played for about two hours and 10 minutes before defeating Watanuki.

The Chennai lad had lost the first set in a tie-breaker, but he later bounced back and overpowered Watanuki.

Prajnesh who is currently ranked 112 in the world, had qualified for the main draw of the French Open in 2018 as a lucky loser, but could not make it after leaving Paris to play a Challenger.

He beat Enrique López Pérez 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the third and final round of qualifying at the first Grand Slam of the year.

Prajnesh finished the match in 74 minutes and had also claimed an equally easy win over Croatia’s Victor Galovic in the first round.

Earlier, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Ankita Raina had gone down three-sets in the second round of qualifying on Thursday.