London: India’s top singles player Prajnesh Gunneswaran Monday crashed out of the Wimbledon Championships after going down in straight sets to World No.17 Milos Raonic of Canada.
The 29-year-old Indian, ranked 94 in the world, lost 6-7 (1), 4-6, 2-6 to 15th seed Raonic. It was Prajnesh’s third first round exit after losing in the opening round at both Australian Open and French Open.
The left-handed Prajnesh, who made his maiden appearance at the Wimbledon, had his chances but unforced errors put paid to his hopes.
He fought really hard in the opening set. He seemed solid on serve for six games but dropped the first set in the tiebreak. The experienced Raonic converted the first of five set points to take it 7-6(1) in 42 minutes.
The match didn’t reach this intensity after the opening set as Raonic walked away with it to enter the second round.
Prajnesh was the only Indian in the singles main draw after Ramkumar Ramanathan and Ankita Raina bowed out after losing their respective second round qualifying matches. Saketh Myneni had lost in the first round of the qualifiers.
Meanwhile, Naomi Osaka’s bid to win a third Grand Slam title came to a premature end on Monday when she lost to Kazakh Yulia Putintseva, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 in the first round.
The 21-year-old Japanese said she had felt a weight lifted from her after losing her No.1 world ranking but it did not show against a talented opponent on Centre Court.
Indeed Putintseva simply franked the form from the recent Birmingham tournament where she had beaten the US Open and Australian Open champion in the second round.
Russia-born Putintseva had never been on Centre Court before and admitted to being taken aback by its circular shape, although she was far from over-awed in the manner she played.
“I did a good job out there and I was fighting great,” said the 24-year-old. “It is amazing.”
Putintseva said she was getting more accustomed to grass, although, she still feels clay is her best surface, and added having a good record against Osaka counted for nothing when they walked out onto Centre Court.
“Honestly every match is a battle I don’t know what is going to happen,” she said after her third win in three against the Japanese. “I do my best, that’s all I can do.”
