Australian Open 2020: India No 1 Prajnesh Gunneswaran advances to second round of qualifiers; Ramkumar Ramanathan bows out

Melbourne: Prajnesh Gunneswaran advanced to the second round of the Australian Open qualifiers but Ramkumar Ramanathan frittered away a one-set advantage to make an exit on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_5977141” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Prajnesh Gunneswaran. Reuters[/caption] Prajnesh knocked out local wild card Harry Bourchier 6-2, 6-4 to set up a second-round clash with Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann. Ramkumar led against 15th seed Argentine before losing steam to suffer a 6-4, 4-6, 1-6 defeat to yet again collapse in the Qualifiers of a Grand Slam. Prajnesh had last year competed in main draws of all four majors of the season. Sumit Nagal, who enjoyed a breakthrough 2019 season, will open his campaign in the qualifiers against Egypt’s Mohamed Safwat. In the women’s qualifiers, India’s lone contender Ankita Raina went down fighting 2-6, 6-7(2) against Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova.