India’s highest ranked singles player Prajnesh Gunneswaran qualified for the main draw of ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells on Thursday, 7 March. He beat Italy’s Salvatore Cruso 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 in an hour and 41 minutes to make the cut.
With this win, Prajnesh qualified his maiden Masters 1000 tournament and is the only Indian to make it to the main draw of the hard-court tournament.
Last year, Prajnesh made it to the main draw of an ATP tournament for the first time and also qualified for his maiden grand slam at the Australian Open earlier this year.
The 29-year-old left-hander, who is now ranked 97th in the world, made it to the top-100 for the first-time last month.
Prajnesh beat Vietnam’s Jason Jung 7-5, 6-4 in the earlier round of qualification. He will now face France’s Benoit Paire in the first round on Saturday early morning. Paire, who is ranked 69th in the world will meeting Prajnesh on a tour for the first time.
In the doubles draw, Rohan Bopanna and his Canadian partner Denis Shapovalov will take on Bruno Soares and Jamie Murray on Friday.
Meanwhile, India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan had earlier lost in straight sets to Filip Krajinović 6-4, 6-0 in the qualifiers.
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