Melbourne: India's top-ranked tennis player Prajnesh Gunneswaran's Australian Open first-round match against Japanese Tatsuma Ito has been rescheduled for Tuesday due to rain.
Prajnesh entered the main draw of the men's singles event as a lucky loser in the qualifiers and was slated to take on Ito, ranked 144th in the world on Monday. He is ranked World No.122.
Earlier, The Indian left-hander had lost the final qualifying round to Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis in straight sets but was fortunate to make the main draw as one of the direct entrants withdrew from the tournament.
It will be Prajnesh’s fifth straight appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam.
The 30-year-old Indian now not only has the opportunity to win his maiden Grand Slam main draw match but also to set up a showdown with Serbian great Djokovic.
Prajnesh said he is not looking beyond the first round.
“I am very happy I got the Lucky Loser spot and I am only thinking about my first round now. I will try to make the most of it. Ito is a very good player. He was in top-100 and is experienced. I will need to play well to beat him,” Prajnesh told a leading news agency.
Last year also, the Chennai player had come through the qualifiers in Melbourne but made the cut at Wimbledon, French Open and the US Open owing to better ranking.
The hard-working Prajnesh lost his top-100 rank towards the end of 2019 season as he suffered a few reversals, probably because of falling health of his father, who passed after losing a battle with cancer.
Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan had failed to enter the main draw as both of them lost in the qualifiers.
At the 2019 US Open, Sumit Nagal ran into legendary Roger Federer and caused a few ripples by a taking a set off the Swiss.
