Fourth seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran’s quest to further embellish his career-best season started in earnest with an assured 6-2, 6-2 win over Russian Ivan Nedelko at the $150,000 Bengaluru Open.
The World No. 144, won 100 per cent of his first serve and 74 per cent of his second serve points and did not face a single break point.
The Russian’s was the superior heft of stroke, with which he often tried to bludgeon his way through. But for such tactics to work in
Bengaluru, where the ball tends to bounce high and fly off the
racquet, Nedelko needed to be at the top of his game. On Tuesday, he clearly wasn’t and the seven double faults he served didn’t help his cause one bit.
Prajnesh needed two breaks of serve in each set -- in the fourth and eighth games in the first and the sixth and eighth games in the
second. He was clinical, controlling his shots with aplomb. He
often went cross-court, with the angle, the distance and the top-spin all ensuring that the ball would land well inside the lines.
At the start of the second set, Prajnesh made a string of errors,
especially on the backhand side, as he tried to press ahead when
presented with openings. But the 28-year-old quickly made amends to wrap up the match in less than an hour.
“I felt good today,” Prajnesh said after the win. “I was coming from
China. Very different conditions. Considering that, I played well.”
Earlier in the day, qualifier Youssef Hossam of Egypt sent the tournament’s top seed Radu Albot packing, coming back from a set down to beat him 2-6, 6-2, 6-2. India’s Sasi Kumar Mukund, also a
qualifier, beat United States’ Collin Altamirano, ranked more than a hundred places above him, 7-6(6), 6-3.
Comments
SHARE