Prajnesh Gunneswaran has qualified for the main draw of a Masters 1000 event for the first time. (Source: Reuters)Prajnesh Gunneswaran qualified for the ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells by beating Italy’s Salvatore Cruso 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 in an hour and 41 minutes. He is the solitary Indian to make the main draw of the hard court tournament in the Californian desert. Prajnesh thus qualifies for his maiden Masters 1000 tournament having made the main draw of an ATP tournament just last year and a maiden grand slam appearance at the Australian Open earlier this year. Also in February this year, Prajnesh, now ranked 97th in the world, made top-100 for the first time.
Prajnesh started brightly to break Cruso’s serve in the first game of the match itself. He added another break in the third game, consolidated the advantage, and was 4-0 up in no time. The Indian needed a single set point to seal the opener 6-2.
Cruso, ranked 168th in the world, could have been down early in the second set as well but the break point opportunity wasn’t converted. The two players remained on serve until the eighth game when the Italian broke Prajnesh to give himself a 5-3 lead. Once again, single set point is all that was needed to level the match.
The third set witnessed four breaks of serve with a repeat of the opening set. Prajnesh once again broke Cruso twice early on and was 4-0 ahead. Despite being broken back immediately, Prajnesh had a break advantage to his name. The Indian made it to the main draw with another break on third match point chance.
The difference in the two players was on serve with Cruso winning just 66% of his first serve points and 42% on the second. Neither fared well on points won on first serve with Prajnesh doing marginally better at 34% against Cruso’s 22%.
Earlier in the tournament, Ramkumar Ramanathan went down 4-6, 0-6 to World No. 113 Filip Krajinovic in the first round of qualification.
