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ESPN staff
India’s top ranked singles player Prajnesh Gunneswaran lost 1-6, 3-6, 1-6 to Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien in the opening round of the 2019 French Open on Sunday.
Prajnesh only managed to hold one serve in the opening set and was broken twice as Dellien went a set up in just 21 minutes. The Indian fared better in the second, holding his first three serves, before being broken at 3-3 and again at 3-5. In the third set, he was broken twice again as the Bolivian wrapped up the win in just over an hour.
Prajnesh, who made his maiden Grand Slam main draw at the Australian Open this year, also achieved his career high ATP ranking (75) in April. However, his preparation for the the French Open hasn’t been ideal, and he always started as second favourite against the in-form Dellien.
Dellien, who scored two solid wins over Andreas Seppi and Janko Tipsarevic in Geneva recently, also played a deciding set with the eventual champion and top seed Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinal.
It was his third quarterfinal appearance on the main tour this year, which is impressive considering he did not even have a tour-level main draw win to his name before entering this season. This impressive start to the season helped the 25-year-old break into the top 100 for the first time in his career which eventually earned him a main draw spot in the French Open – his first-ever main draw appearance at this level.