Australian Open: Prajnesh Gunneswaran qualifies for main draw

India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran got the better of Japan's Yosuke Watanuki 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-4 in the third round of the Australian Open qualifiers to advance to the main draw. This will be his maiden main draw appearance in a Grand Slam.

Prajnesh will be up against Frances Tiafoe in the first round.

The 112-ranked Prajnesh prevailed in the third qualifier match that lasted two hours and 10 minutes.

The Indian started on a horrid note, losing the first set in a tie-breaker but he bounced back well to win the next two sets with an identical margin.

In 2018, Prajnesh qualified for the main draw of French Open as the lucky loser, but he could not participate as he had already registered to play a Challenger tournament in Paris.

Earlier, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Ankita Raina lost their respective third round qualifiers.