Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan crashed out of the Wimbledon Qualifiers, losing their first round matches in London on Monday.
Prajnesh, who was in good form, could not play to his potential due to an abdominal strain, losing 1-6, 4-6 to Germany’s Tobias Kamke. He had lost to the lower-ranked opponent at the Australian Open qualifying as well.
“I just could not serve well due to abdominal strain,” a dejected Prajnesh told PTI from London.
The result means that Prajnesh will have to wait for the next year to attempt an appearance in the main draw of the Grand Slams as he will miss out on the US Open qualifiers because of his participation in the Asian Games.
Sumit, ranked 239th in the world, suffered his eighth straight first round defeat when he was thrashed 2-6, 0-6 by Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak, ranked 192.
Ramkumar, who is seeded 15th in the Qualifiers, lost 3-6, 4-6 to Italian Simone Bolleli.
Meanwhile in the ladies’ singles qualifiers, Ankita Raina got an easy opening round against Maia Lumsden, ranked 422nd in the world.
Other results
- Adil Kalyanpur, seeded first in the ITF F16 Futures (USD 25K) in Spain, beat local favourite Benjamin Winter Lopez 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the qualifiers.
- In the ITF F3 Futures (USD 15K) in Sri Lanka, Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha beat Thailand’s Kittirat Kerdlaphee 6-3, 6-2 in the first round.
- Mihika Yadav beat Spain’s Paula Ortega Redondo 7-5, 6-0 in the third round of the ITF Futures (USD 15K) qualifiers in Portugal.
- Vasanti Shinde prevailed in a three-set battle against Russia’s Alexandra Abyasova in the second round of the qualifiers in ITF Futures (USD 15K) in Tunisia.
(With inputs from PTI)
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