Bengaluru Open Challenger: Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Mukund Sasikumar reach final qualifying round

While Mukund Sasikumar and Prajnesh Gunneswaran reached the final qualifying round, five other Indians bowed out on first day.

India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran in action during his first-round qualifying match against Benjamin Lock of Zimbabwe at the 2023 Bengaluru Open ATP Challenger on Sunday. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Mukund Sasikumar and Prajnesh Gunneswaran made their way into the final qualifying round at the 2023 Bengaluru Open ATP Challenger after registering contrasting victories on Sunday.

The 26-year-old Sasikumar, ranked 402 in the world, dominated the World No. 170 Andrew Paulson of Czech Republic during his confident 6-1, 6-4 win.

India No. 1 Gunneswaran, on the other hand, faced some tough challenge from Zimbabwean Benjamin Lock in the first set, which went into a tie-breaker, but managed to keep things under control to secure a 7-5, 6-4 victory.

Meanwhile, it was heartbreak for Ramkumar Ramanathan, who put up a solid show against the former World No. 78 Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan before going down fighting 6-3, 5-7, 3-6 in a thrilling three-setter that lasted more than two hours.

Four other Indians, Sidharth Rawat, Kriish Tyagi, Digvijaypratap Singh and Manish Ganesh, who received wild cards, also suffered defeats in their respective matches.

Top-seed Tseng Chun-Hsin of Chinese Taipei, Australian Marc Polmans and No. 5 seed Luca Nardi of Italy among others will begin their challenge in the singles main draw whereas Sasikumar and Gunneswaran will fight in the final qualifying round on Monday.

Results (Indians only)

Qualifying, first round: [11] Carlos Sanchez Jover (ESP) bt [WC] Manish Ganesh 6-1, 7-6(2); [5] Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Benjamin Lock (ZIM) 7-5, 6-4; [1] Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan 3-6, 7-5, 6-3; [8] James McCabe (AUS) bt [WC] Digvijaypratap Singh 6-1, 7-5; [4] Nikola Milojevic (SRB) bt [WC] Kriish Tyagi 6-2, 7-6(4); Mukund Sasikumar bt [12] Andrew Paulson (CZE) 6-1, 6-4; [2] Hiroki Moriya (JPN) bt [WC] Sidharth Rawat 7-5, 6-2

Final qualifying round fixtures (Indians only)

Mukund Sasikumar vs [6] Jason Jung (TPE)

[5] Prajnesh Gunneswaran vs [11] Carlos Sanchez Jover (ESP)