Ramkumar advances, Prajnesh crashes out of Wimbledon Qualifiers

London, June 22: Ramkumar Ramanathan advanced to the second round of the Wimbledon Qualifiers but Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who was under-prepared due to a left-wrist injury, bowed out here on Tuesday.

Ramkumar beat Slovakia's 13th seed Jozef Kovalik 6-3 6-0 in exactly one hour in his first round. Prajnesh, though, lost in straight sets to British wild card Arthur Fery, who is not ranked even inside top-1000.

The left-handed Indian, ranked 148, lost 1-6 6-7(5) to his 18-year-old rival, who is ranked as low as 1038.

"I had tendinitis (left-wrist) which started three weeks ago. It's fine now. But I just started playing. I only hit for two days and for less than an hour each. So just not in the best shape," Prajnesh told PTI.

"If it wasn't Wimbledon. I wouldn't have played. Just didn't have enough time to get ready," he added.

Ankita Raina will be in action in the women's singles qualifying event, later on Tuesday (June 22).