Prajnesh progresses, Ramkumar, Ankita ousted from Australian Open qualifiers

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Melbourne, Jan 14: Prajnesh Gunneswaran advanced to the second round of the Australian Open qualifiers but Ramkumar Ramanathan frittered away a one-set advantage to make an exit, here on Tuesday.

Prajnesh knocked out local wild card Harry Bourchier 6-2, 6-4 to set up second round clash with Germany's Yannick Hanfmann.

Ramkumar led against 15th seed Argentine before losing steam to suffer a 6-4, 4-6, 1-6 defeat to yet again collapse in the Qualifiers of a Grand Slam. Prajnesh had last year competed in main draws of all four majors of the season.

Sumit Nagal, who enjoyed a breakthrough 2019 season, will open his campaign in the qualifiers against Egypt's Mohamed Safwat. In the women's qualifiers, India's lone contender Ankita Raina went down fighting 2-6 6-7(2) against Bulgaria's Viktoriya Tomova.