Australian Open qualifiers: Prajnesh advances; Ramkumar, Ankita ousted

Prajnesh Gunneswaran advanced to the second round of the Australian Open qualifiers but Ramkumar Ramanathan frittered away a one-set advantage to make an exit in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Prajnesh knocked out local wild card Harry Bourchier 6-2 6-4 to set up a second round clash with Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann.

Ramkumar led against 15th seed Argentine Federico Coria before losing steam to suffer a 6-4 4-6 1-6 defeat, thereby collapsing yet again in the Qualifiers of a Grand Slam.

Prajnesh had last year competed in the main draws of all four majors (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open).

Sumit Nagal, who enjoyed a breakthrough 2019 season, will open his campaign in the qualifiers against Egypt's Mohamed Safwat.

In the women’s qualifiers, India’s lone contender Ankita Raina went down fighting 2-6 6-7(2) against Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova.