Prajnesh sails into round two

Top seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran sailed into the second round of the $15000 ITF Futures tennis tournament here, after quelling a second-set fightback from his German rival Haenle Pirmin.

Prajnesh displayed his class in full measure, winning 6-3, 7-7 (1). His compatriots Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan, seeded second and third, also moved into the second round.

Prajnesh racecd to a 4-1 lead before Pirmin fought back. But the Indian remained in control to win the set. The second set saw  both players holding on to their serve with ease. Pirmin raised his game by couple of notches with strong serves and good volley winners.

The set spilled into  tie-break and Prajnesh, hitting with power and precision,  ran up a 4-0 lead and as Pirmin faltered with couple of unforced erros, Prajnesh wrapped up the match.

Vishnu nipped an early challenge from Jayesh Pungliya 6-4, 6-1 with his big serve and solid forehand winners while Balaji subdued a spirited resistance from his Tamil Nadu team-mate and former National champion, V M Ranjeet  7-6 (2 ), 7-5.

There was  something to cheer for home fans as Suraj Prabodh scripted a 6-2 , 6-4 win over Kunal Anand.

The lanky Mysorean played a positive game and won 6-2. Buoyed by that effort, he was  on target in the second set to close at 6-4.

DH News Service
Results (first round): Singles: Sidarth Vishwakarma bt Jui Chen Hung (Tpe) 6-3, 6-2; Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Pirmin Haenle (Ger) 6-3, 7-6 (1); Vishnu Vardhan bt Jayesh Pungliya 6-4, 6-1; Hadin Bawa bt Dalbir Singh 6-3, 6-3; Sami Reinwein (Ger) bt Vijayant Malik 6-1, 6-1; Suraj R Prabodh bt Kunal Anand 6-2, 6-4; Dakshineshwar Suresh bt Sivadeep Kosaraju 6-3, 6-0; N Sriram Balaji bt V M Ranjeet 7-6 (2), 7-5; Paramveer Singh Bajwa bt Tejas Chaukular 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.

Doubles: Jeson Patrombon (Phi)/ Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Aryan Goveas/ Jayesh Pungliya 3-6, 6-3, 10-5; Jui Chen Hung (Tpe)/ Hong Kit Wong (HK) bt Rishab Agarwal/ Karunuday Singh 7-6 (3 ), 3-6, 10-3.