Prajnesh enters Australian Open main draw, may run into Djokovic in 2nd round

Indian tennis player Prajnesh Gunnewaran on Saturday sneaked into Australian Open men's singles main draw as a lucky loser and may run into world number one vak Djokovic if he clears first hurdle. Indian left-hander h lost final qualifying round to Latvia's Ernests Gulbis in straight sets but was fortunate to make main draw as one of direct entrants withdrew from tournament. It will be Prajnesh's fifth straight appearance in main draw of a Grand Slam.

Last year also, Chennai player h come through qualifiers in Melbourne but me cut at Wimbledon, French Open and US Open owing to better ranking. A good draw has put Prajnesh against Japanese Tatsuma Ito, ranked 22 places below Indian at 144. This will be first meeting of duo. 30-year-old Indian w t only has opportunity to win his maiden Grand Slam main draw match but also to set up a showdown with Serbian great Djokovic.

Prajnesh said he is t looking beyond first round.

"I am very happy I got Lucky Loser spot and I am only thinking about my first round w. I will try to make most of it. Ito is a very good player. He was in top-100 and is experienced. I will need to play well to beat him," Prajnesh told PTI.

At 2019 US Open, Sumit Nagal ran into legendary Roger Federer and caused a few ripples by a taking a set off Swiss. hard-working Prajnesh lost his top-100 rank towards end of 2019 season as he suffered a few reversals, probably because of falling health of his far, who passed after losing a battle with cancer. Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan h failed to enter main draw as both of m lost in qualifiers.