Prajnesh caps great week with win
BENGALURU: Prajnesh Gunneswaran made short work of Saketh Myneni 6-2, 6-2 in just 55 minutes to lift the Bengaluru Open Tennis ATP Challenger Tour title, his second this season, on Saturday.
Left-handed Gunneswaran, who will now most certainly become India’s new No 1 player after collecting the full 125 points on offer here, broke a struggling Myneni in the very first game of the opening set.
Myneni, who has played singles and doubles here, was coming off a tough three-set semifinals and it showed in the number of errors even in the first game itself as Gunneswaran went 2-0 up. As Myneni struggled, Gunneswaran launched into attack, playing big forehand returns to make life difficult for his compatriot. He broke Myneni in the seventh game before serving out for the first set.
“I started well today, maybe was lucky to be a break up at the start. Saketh has played every day through this week and I think it showed as he looked tired. I mean the score looks easy but it wasn’t -- did well to get the job done,” said Gunneswaran, 29, whose other title of 2018 is the ATP Challenger he won at the Kunming Open in China in April.
Myneni, 31, had made an impressive comeback in the semifinals on Friday after losing the first set but Gunneswaran made sure he closed out the set. Clearly struggling with his serve and a game peppered with unforced errors, Myneni again handed Gunneswaran a break in the opening game of the second set.
The Chennai player was quick to pounce on the advantage, using angles to good effect to catch Myneni off guard and race to 3- l. “He didn’t gave me a chance. But I had a good week and will take lots of positives from this week to the next (Pune Challenger) and to the off-season. I made too many errors and credit to him for playing fantastic this week,” Myneni said. He received a wild card for this event and being a finalist here has got him an entry into the Pune event too.
With Myneni throwing everything, Gunneswaran broke again in the fifth game. “He plays heavy and being a lefty is able to create lot more angles, which you have to adjust too,” Myneni said. Serving for the match at 5-2, Gunneswaran produced an ace to finish off the contest.
Gunneswaran will now look to cap off another good week in Pune, and if he wins there too, maybe he can start dreaming of landing in the Australian Open main draw as he might be ranked around 104 by the December 2 cutoff date. “I haven’t thought that far. I mean I know the numbers but my goal this year was to stay in the Challengers and I think I have done that. Maybe from next year, I can take it a step further and play ATP Tour events, but will like to wait and watch,” Gunneswaran said.