Australian Open 2020: India's Prajnesh Gunneswaran rues 'horrible match' in error-prone first-round exit

Melbourne: For the fifth time in five Grand Slams, India’s No 1 singles tennis star, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, failed to win even a set, this time losing to Japanese wildcard Tatsumo Ito in straight sets, 4-6, 2-6, 5-7 in just over two hours.

A dream match-up with Novak Djokovic was on the cards, and, following Sumit Nagal’s encounter against Roger Federer in the US Open at the end of last year, would have boded well for Indian tennis. However, Gunneswaran will have to now go home empty-handed.

Right from the offset, his game was riddled with unforced errors as he failed to get into any sort of rhythm. With a grand total of 47 unforced errors, Prajnesh could not summon the level of performance he had displayed in the qualifiers.

“Not many things went right for me. To be honest, it was a horrible match. Mentally very bad. I had no composure, I was very tentative and passive and had loads of errors. I came into the match and was not really playing the ball but playing the situation. For whatever reason, I could not get control of my mind,” he said after the match.

“Usually when this happens, I look to my serve or my forehand to get a little bit of rhythm but that did not happen today.”

A number of opportunities were squandered from the very first set, with Gunneswaran getting himself into a good position while receiving. He found himself 0-30 up on Ito’s serve twice in the first set and a few times in the second. However, he failed to take advantage of these situations and gave away a lot of free points.

“At the beginning of the match, I wanted it too bad and whenever I went up 0-30 or 15-30, I missed the ball. It’s not something I do very often as I’m usually solid when I get these opportunities. There were too many unforced errors today.”

The third set started off well with Prajnesh breaking Ito’s serve and consolidating with a hold. However, the errors returned and proved to be his undoing as he handed the break back to Ito just a couple of games later.

“There was a patch in between where I was annoyed and that’s how I actually got the break, early in the third. I hit a return winner after I checked out a little bit and that’s how I got the ball.

“I was a bit more relaxed in the third set after being two sets down and that’s when I played better. That’s when I thought that if I was relaxed from the beginning, I could have played better,” he said.

Mentally and physically exhausted, the Indian lost his cool towards the end of the match and was docked a point after he smashed two balls out of the court, despite getting a warning from the umpire the first time.

“I just lost my mind. Everything that I could have done wrong, I did. I finally broke in the third set but gave it away and then he got net chords two games in a row, and that’s when I lost it,” he said about the point penalty.

Unfortunately, Prajnesh was not at his physical best, still recovering from a wrist injury, which clearly hampered his game.

“I’m not able to produce the spin I usually do. Against players like Ito who prefer the ball at hip height, I usually play the ball heavier or higher but this was not something I could do too often today. When I did do it, he did not play well and made errors but I couldn’t resort to that too often,” he said.

At some points in the match, it did look like the pro-Japanese crowd affected the Indian’s game. However, that was not the case as Prajnesh conceded that it was nice to have such a large crowd in attendance.

“No, not really. The crowd did not affect me. It was good for him and in general, it was nice to have a big crowd watching me play.”

Ever since his Grand Slam debut, which came at Rod Laver Arena last year, there have been two different versions of Prajnesh on the court. The one in the qualifiers seemed fearless and confident, hitting winners with ease and serving big. However, the other version, which has reared its ugly head in the main draw, has not nearly been at the same level.

Gunneswaran himself is aware of the fact that he needs to improve his level of play once he reaches the main draw of the Slam.

“I feel like I’m letting it affect me more than it should. I need to get past that. I’m playing a lot below par than I can and I need to focus on changing that.

More than it being a five-set match, I’m putting too much focus on the fact that I’m playing a Grand Slam and that affected me. I need to get over that and believe that I’m playing in Grand Slams on a regular basis and just play normally,” he said.

‘Not much support for Indian players’

A few days ago, Sumit Nagal had spoken about the lack of support Indian tennis players receive. Prajnesh too voiced his concerns over the issues Indian tennis players go through and felt that a lot more needs to be done to promote the sport in India.

“There is not much support for Indian players. The juniors are not supported well. If you like at other countries like China, they have a lot more support than we do,” said Prajnesh.

The 30-year-old turned professional way back in 2010 but it was only until a couple of years ago, he made a name for himself. It was only then that he started receiving some sort of financial support from which he has reaped the benefits.

“I have gotten some support now but only after reaching this level. If it wasn’t for my parents, I wouldn’t have been here. That is sad because there are a lot of kids who have the potential but they don’t have an opportunity to even see if they can make it because of the lack of money. I think there needs to be a lot of changes,” he said.

For now, Prajnesh will turn his focus to India’s only ATP tournament, to be held in Pune in the first week of February.