India’s singles challenge came to an end in the US Open after Prajnesh Gunneswaran was handed a straight-set defeat by American Christopher Eubanks in the second round of qualifying.
The world No 156 went down 3-6, 4-6 to Eubanks, ranked 216th, in a match that lasted 50 minutes on Thursday
He was looking to make his second appearance in the US Open main draw. The 31-year-old had qualified for the main draw in 2019, when he had lost to Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the opening round.
Prajnesh was the last Indian left in the qualifiers after three others went down in the first round.
Why have a net when you can just go around it? 👏
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 26, 2021
🇮🇳 Prajnesh Gunneswaran brought out the GOODS during his Round 2 qualifying match with Chris Eubanks @PrajneshGP | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/4tY0fFRKgT
The two other Indian players in fray in the men’s singles qualifiers, Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan, made opening-round exits earlier in the week.
Nagal lost 5-7, 6-4, 3-6 to Argentina’s Juan Pablo Ficovich while Ramkumar frittered away a one-set advantage to lose 6-4 6-7 (1) 4-6 to Russia’s Evgeny Donskoy.
Ankita Raina was also out after losing her first round match in women’s singles qualifiers 3-6 6-2 4-6 to American Jamie Loeb.
With PTI Inputs