Bendigo (Australia): Prajnesh Gunneswaran fought hard before going down against Japanese Taro Daniel in the second round of the Bendigo Challenger event tennis tournament, here Tuesday.
Prajnesh lost 4-6, 6-7(4-7) to the Japanese, ranked 16 places above him No. 122 at the USD 162480 ATP Challenger event.
The Indian could convert just one of the six break chances he created while he saved six of the eight breakpoints he faced in the 90-minute contest.
“It was a close match but I had a lot of chances but I could not convert. I made a lot of errors. I was aggressive and tried to attack and that was the positive from today’s match,” Prajnesh said after his defeat.
“In the first set I had chances in the beginning. He (Daniel) was tentative because it was his first match of the season. He was pushing the second serves a bit but I did not go after that. I could have changed the tempo of the match, had I been a break up early, than being on serve and losing at 4-5.”
Further explaining the reasons for not doing as well as he could have, Prajnesh said he still can’t unleash his favourite shot since he is yet to completely recover from his wrist injury.
“In the second set I came back from a break down. I need my forehand to be back in its original power. I was playing little flat and made a lot of mistakes because of that. I have to work on this. I still have some issues so I can’t play with the kind of spin I do,” informed Prajnesh.
PTI