Prajnesh reaches Orlando Challenger semifinals, regains India No. 1 spot

Prajnesh Gunneswaran regained the India No. 1 spot with a dominant straight-sets win over Kazakhstan’s Dmitry Popko in the Orlando Open quarterfinals here on Friday.

The fourth seeded Indian won 6-0, 6-3 against the sixth seeded Kazakh to progress to the semifinals of the USD 52,080 hard-court tournament.

Courtesy of the win, Prajnesh will rise to the 133rd position or higher in the ATP singles chart. He is currently ranked 133rd. It will push India’s Sumit Nagal to No. 2; Nagal is placed 136th this week and hasn’t played in the last two weeks.

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Prajnesh reached the final of the Cary Challenger last week and carried his good form into this event.

His quarterfinal opponent Popko was off-colour today as his erratic serve and ground strokes made the job of Prajnesh very easy.

India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan had made a first-round exit after losing 3-6, 4-6 to local lucky loser Nick Chappell. It was his second consecutive first-round defeat after ending runner-up at the Eckental Challenger.