French Open qualifiers: Prajnesh progresses, Sumit & Ramkumar ousted

Prajnesh Gunneswaran progressed to the second round of the French Open qualifiers while Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan crashed out.

Prajnesh will face either Marcelo Arevalo or Pedro Martinez in the next round (File Image).

Prajnesh Gunneswaran defeated Italy's Salvatore Caruso 6-4, 6-4 to progress to the second round of the French Open qualifiers on Monday. He will face either Marcelo Arevalo or Pedro Martinez in the next round.

Prajnesh broke Caruso in the ninth game and served out the next game to take the first set. It was more of the same in the second set as well as the Indian once again broke in the ninth game and held serve to clinch a memorable win.

Meanwhile, Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan registered losses to crash out. Sumit was the first Indian in action and seemed set to coast to a comfortable win against Martin Klizan. Sumit took the first set 6-4 and led 4-2 in the second but lost his momentum and surrendered the second set 4-6. Klizan staged a remarkable comeback to take the third set 6-1 and seal the win.

Ramkumar played out a close tie against England's Jay Clarke in his 3-6, 7-5, 1-6 loss. After failing to find his rhythm in the first set, Ramkumar surged back to claim the second set and push the tie to a deciding third set. However, the Indian looked to have run out of steam as Clarke steamrolled his way past him to comfortably take the decider in 33 minutes.