Prajnesh Gunneswaran went down 6-3, 7-6 to South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon on Thursday. (Express Photo by Daniel Stephen)
Nothing on a tennis court sounds as sweet as a full-blooded thump off the sweet spot on a racquet. The Prajnesh Gunneswaran forehand, on centre court at the Balewadi Tennis Stadium in Pune, often produces such high notes. But it isn’t just there for the cosmetic effect – that left-handed punch is one of his biggest weapons.
On Thursday, he relied heavily on it when he took on Soonwoo Kwon in the second round. Running around his weaker backhand many a times to unleash another ripping topspin drive, to open up the court or strike a winner. It’s not to say that he shies away from his backhand.
Trailing 4-6 in the second set tiebreaker, the first match point he faced, Prajnesh stepped up and played a flat, powerful cross court return. Kwon was on the right side of the court, but the pace at which Prajnesh hammered the shot saw the South Korean get a weak forehand shot back into the net.
At 30, India’s highest ranked singles player had developed an aggressive baseline game. He plays all his ground-strokes with power, be it for a percentage shot or an angled effort. And he likes his forehand.
“I believe in my backhand quite a lot but have more options on my forehand. More angles, more spin to open up the court,” he says.
While he excels in power, he lacks in variation. On the next point, Kwon’s second match point, the South Korean made a smart angled return to Prajnesh’s serve, played an inside out forehand deep into Prajnesh’s forehand side and glided up to the net. The 22-year-old volleyed once into the opposing corner, stretched to his backhand to volley into Prajnesh’s left corner. The Indian hustled, got to the ball, returned, and Kwon still poised at the net, casually guided the ball home for the match, winning it 6-3, 7-6.
It was a contest that lasted an hour and 44 minutes, but it was a lesson for Prajnesh to explore a world beyond a hard-hitting fest.
“He holds the baseline better than I do and he plays fast,” the Chennai-lad says of the world no 88. “Normally I try to dictate points, but he hits it flat with a lot of power so it becomes harder to win the point. Playing opponents this fast, I need to hold the baseline better. I need to learn how to use the slice to take off the pace, use (the opponent’s) speed to time the ball and redirect the return – probably both. So that the next time he’s attacking I can use it to my advantage.”
Kwon was good in defence, fluid in his movement across the baseline and clever in his approach to the net – that too in his first match at the event as he received a bye by being the fourth seed.
“Prajnesh is a left-hander which is never easy. I was reading his serve pretty well, I noticed certain patterns especially from the ad-court,” he says. “Last year I improved my mentality a lot on court, along with my serve – I change my grip slightly which helped.”
It’s the art of reinventing oneself that has been working for the 22-year-old from Seoul. To be fair though, Prajnesh has been working on improving in his own way.
In the last few years, he’s worked hard on his backhand, becoming more adept with the two-hander of his right flank. Meanwhile, the former world no 75 has also been picking up wins at regular intervals. Earlier in the tournament, he beat Germany’s Yannick Maden for his first ever main draw win at the Indian ATP.
“It’s good that I’m making progress, winning matches. But I’m still not satisfied,” he says. “I have a long way to go. These are the matches that I feel I should win. This is the thing I need to do to stay at this level. But I need to win consistently.”
Six-time champ Paes ousted
Veteran Indian Leander Paes, a record six-time champion in doubles at the Indian ATP, lost in the quarterfinal of his last appearance at the Tata Open Maharashtra. Pairing with Australia’s Matthew Ebden, the 46-year-old lost out to Indian team of Purav Raja and Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-2, 6-1.
The 18-time Grand Slam champion is next scheduled to play at the Bangalore Challenger next week.
Meanwhile, the Raja-Ramkumar pairing remains the last Indian representation at the ATP 250 event after India’s highest ranked singles player Prajnesh Gunneswaran crashed out in the second round of the competition.