India No 1 Prajnesh Gunneswaran continued his superb vein of form on the day he reached a career-high rank, breezing through his first qualifying match for Miami Open.
The 29-year-old beat Spain’s Adrian Menendez Maceiras 6-2, 6-4 to get one step closer to a second straight Masters main draw appearance. The world No 84 will take on Great Britain’s Jay Clarke in the final qualifying round, a week after reaching the third round at Indian Wells.
However, Ramkumar Ramanathan went down at the first hurdle, losing his qualifying round one match 4-6, 1-6 to Lorenzo Sonego.
Meanwhile Karman Kaur Thandi, who was given a qualifying wild card for the Miami Open, retired hurt in the first match without winning a single game. She was trailing 0-6 0-3 against Viktorija Golubic when she pulled out citing a shoulder injury.
Elsewhere, India’s top-ranked women’s singles player Ankita Raina advanced at the $25K ITF tournament in Kofu, Japan. Seeded fourth, she beat Yuxuan Zhang 6-3, 6-2 to reach the second round.
The doubles action at the Challengers and some other tournaments on the International Tennis Federation circuit will begin on Wednesday.
