Prajnesh Gunneswaran

Prajnesh Gunneswaran

Country (sports)	India
Residence	Chennai, India
Born	(1989-11-12) 12 November 1989 (age 35) Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	2010
Retired	2024
Plays	Left-handed (two–handed backhand)
Coach	Bastian Suwanprateeep
Prize money	$888,338 [1]
Singles
Career record	11–28
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 75 (22 April 2019)
Current ranking	No. 446 (24 April 2023) [1]
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	1R (2019, 2020)
French Open	1R (2019)
Wimbledon	1R (2019)
US Open	1R (2019)
Doubles
Career record	1–1
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 248 (24 December 2018)
Current ranking	No. 890 (13 September 2021)
Medal record Men's tennis Representing   India Asian Games 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Singles
Last updated on: 13 September 2021.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran (born 12 November 1989) ^[2] is an Indian former professional tennis player. ^[3] He has won 2 ATP Challenger and 8 ITF titles in singles and 1 ITF title in doubles. ^[4] He represents India at the Davis Cup. ^[5] At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, he won the bronze medal in the men's singles event.

In November 2024, Gunneswaran announced his retirement from professional tennis. ^[6]

Personal life

Prajnesh Gunneswaran is the son of Mr. S G Prabhakharan and Mrs. Usha. He married Sudarshana Pai in Ernakulam, Kerala in 2019.

Career

2010–2017: Early career

Gunneswaran mainly participated in ITF and ATP Challenger events in his early years. While he won eight ITF Futures singles titles, he found limited success on the Challenger tour.

In October 2016, he reached his first ATP Challenger singles final at Pune Challenger. He lost the title match to Frenchman Sadio Doumbia. ^[7] In May 2017, he reached his first ATP Challenger doubles final at 2017 Samarkand Challenger. Partnering with compatriot Vishnu Vardhan, the pair lost the final to team of Laurynas Grigelis and Zdeněk Kolář.

Gunneswaran made his Davis Cup debut for India against Uzbekistan in April 2017. ^[8]

2018: 2 ATP Challenger titles, Asian games Bronze Medal, Indian No. 1

2018 proved to be breakthrough year for Gunneswaran. He reached four ATP Challenger singles finals, winning two of them. He won his first ATP Challenger singles title at the Kunming Open by defeating Mohamed Safwat in the final. ^[9] In an all-Indian final, he defeated Saketh Myneni at Bengaluru Open to lift his second Challenger singles trophy. ^[10] He finished as runner-up at the Ningbo Challenger and Pune Challenger. In April he also reached his second ATP Challenger doubles final at Santaizi ATP Challenger in Taipei, where he partnered with Saketh Myneni. ^[11]

At French Open, Gunneswaran lost in the final qualifying round. Although he was chosen as lucky loser after Nick Kyrgios withdrew from the competition, Gunneswaran could not participate in the main draw event as he had already left Paris before Kyrgios announced his withdrawal, thus failing to debut in the main draw of a Grand Slam event. ^[12]

In August, he won the bronze medal in the men's singles tennis event at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta. He became the sixth Indian male athlete to win a medal in tennis at the Asian Games. ^[13]

Gunneswaran started the season as World No. 243 in singles ranking. With solid performance on the Challenger tour he finished the season on a career-high ranking of No. 104 and became the highest ranked Indian singles player.

2019: Grand Slam main draw & top 100 debuts

Gunneswaran started the season by entering the Maharashtra Open, where he received a wildcard into the main draw. He lost in the first round to Michael Mmoh in straight sets. ^[14]

At the Australian Open, he won the qualifying competition and debuted in the main draw of a Grand Slam event. He lost in the first round in straight sets to Frances Tiafoe. ^[15]

On 11 February 2019, he reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 97, debuting in the top 100 singles rankings. ^[16]

Gunneswaran came through the qualifying of the 2019 BNP Paribas Open and defeated Frenchman Benoit Paire in straight sets to enter the second round. He won his second round match against the 17th seed Nikoloz Basilashvili in three sets to make the third round of an ATP 1000 Tournament for the first time in his career. ^[17] Gunneswaran's run at the Indian Wells Masters came to an end following a straight set defeat to Ivo Karlovic in the third round. This was Gunneswaran's maiden appearance at an ATP Masters event. ^[18] Next, he qualified for the Miami Open, a back-to-back main draw appearance at a Masters event. He lost in the opening round to Jaume Munar.

In April, Gunneswaran reached his season's first ATP Challenger singles final at the Anning Challenger. He was the defending champion and lost to British player Jay Clarke in the final. As a result, he rose to a career-high singles ranking of No. 75. ^[19] In July his ranking automatically enabled him entry to the main draw at Wimbledon, where he lost in the first round to Milos Raonic.

He lost to Daniil Medvedev at the US Open in the first round.

Challenger and Futures finals

Singles: 27 (11–16)

Legend (singles) ATP Challenger Tour (2–7) ITF Futures Tour (9–9)

Titles by surface Hard (7–14) Clay (4–2) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Jun 2013	India F6, Chennai	Futures	Hard	Vijayant Malik	7–6(7–5), 6–3
Win	2–0	Jul 2013	Denmark F2, Aarhus	Futures	Clay	Colin van Beem	6–3, 4–6, 6–0
Loss	2–1	Sep 2013	Egypt F26, Sharm El Sheikh	Futures	Clay	Enrique López Pérez	0–6, 0–6
Loss	2–2	Sep 2015	India F12, Chennai	Futures	Hard	Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan	6–7(8–10), 4–6
Loss	2–3	Nov 2015	India F16, Gwalior	Futures	Hard	Ramkumar Ramanathan	3–6, 4–6
Win	3–3	Dec 2015	India F18, Jassowal	Futures	Hard	Ronit Singh Bisht	6–4, 6–4
Loss	3–4	Dec 2015	India F19, Mumbai	Futures	Hard	Ramkumar Ramanathan	3–6, 3–6
Loss	3–5	Mar 2016	Turkey F9, Antalya	Futures	Hard	Yannick Jankovits	6–7(9–11), 6–4, 3–6
Win	4–5	Sep 2016	India F4, Chennai	Futures	Clay	Sriram Balaji	3–6, 7–5, 7–6(7–3)
Loss	4–6	Sep 2016	India F6, Coimbatore	Futures	Hard	Sanam Singh	3–6, 6–3, 4–6
Loss	4–7	Oct 2016	Pune, India	Challenger	Hard	Sadio Doumbia	6–4, 4–6, 3–6
Win	5–7	Mar 2017	India F4, Bhilai	Futures	Hard	Sriram Balaji	6–4, 6–2
Loss	5–8	Mar 2017	India F5, Bangalore	Futures	Hard	Sriram Balaji	6–2, 3–6, 4–6
Win	6–8	Mar 2017	India F6, Trivandrum	Futures	Clay	Sriram Balaji	7–5, 6–3
Win	7–8	Jul 2017	China F10, Kunshan	Futures	Hard	Li Zhe	6–3, 6–1
Loss	7–9	Jul 2017	China F11, Shenzhen	Futures	Hard	Zhang Zhizhen	6–2, 5–7, 0–5 ret.
Loss	7–10	Dec 2017	Indonesia F8, Jakarta	Futures	Hard	Lee Duck-hee	3–6, 6–4, 6–7(6–8)
Win	8–10	Mar 2018	India F3, Chandigarh	Futures	Hard	Lý Hoàng Nam	6–3, 6–4
Win	9–10	Apr 2018	Anning, China, P.R.	Challenger	Clay	Mohamed Safwat	5–7, 6–3, 6–1
Loss	9–11	Oct 2018	Ningbo, China, P.R.	Challenger	Hard	Thomas Fabbiano	6–7(4–7), 6–4, 3–6
Win	10–11	Nov 2018	Bangalore, India	Challenger	Hard	Saketh Myneni	6–2, 6–2
Loss	10–12	Nov 2018	Pune, India	Challenger	Hard	Elias Ymer	2–6, 5–7
Loss	10–13	Apr 2019	Anning, China, P.R.	Challenger	Clay	Jay Clarke	4–6, 3–6
Loss	10–14	Nov 2020	Cary, United States	Challenger	Hard	Denis Kudla	6–3, 3–6, 0–6
Loss	10–15	Nov 2020	Orlando, United States	Challenger	Hard	Brandon Nakashima	3–6, 4–6
Loss	10–16	Mar 2022	Monterrey, Mexico	Challenger	Hard	Fernando Verdasco	6–4, 3–6, 6–7(3–7)
Win	11–16	Jan 2023	M25, Al Zahra, Kuwait	ITF	Hard	Khumoyun Sultanov	6–2, 7–6(7–5)

Doubles: 3 (1–2)

Legend (doubles) ATP Challenger Tour (0–2) ITF Futures Tour (1–0)

Titles by surface Hard (0–1) Clay (1–0) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–1)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Sep 2013	Egypt F25, Sharm El Sheikh	Futures	Clay	Issam Haitham Taweel	Filippo Borella Aleksandr Ivanovich Spirin	6–3, 6–2
Loss	1–1	May 2017	Samarkand, Uzbekistan	Challenger	Hard	Vishnu Vardhan	Laurynas Grigelis Zdeněk Kolář	6–7(2–7), 3–6
Loss	1–2	Apr 2018	Taipei, Taiwan	Challenger	Carpet (i)	Saketh Myneni	Matthew Ebden Andrew Whittington	4–6, 7–5, [6–10]

Singles performance timeline

Key

W

F

SF

QF

#R

RR

Q#

P#

DNQ

A

Z#

PO

G

S

B

NMS

NTI

P

NH

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.

Current through the 2022 Maharashtra Open.

Tournament	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	SR	W–L	Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	A	A	A	A	Q1	1R	1R	Q1	Q2	0 / 2	0–2	0%
French Open	A	A	A	A	A	A	Q3	1R	Q2	Q1		0 / 1	0–1	0%
Wimbledon	A	A	A	A	A	A	Q1	1R	NH	Q1		0 / 1	0–1	0%
US Open	A	A	A	A	A	Q1	A	1R	A	Q2		0 / 1	0–1	0%
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–4	0–1	0–0	0–0	0 / 5	0–5	0%
Year-end championships
ATP Finals	Did not qualify											0 / 0	0–0	–
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells Masters	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	3R	NH	A		0 / 1	2–1	67%
Miami Open	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	NH	A		0 / 1	0–1	0%
Monte-Carlo Masters	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	NH	A		0 / 0	0–0	–
Madrid Open	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	NH	A		0 / 0	0–0	–
Italian Open	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A		0 / 0	0–0	–
Canadian Open	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	NH	A		0 / 0	0–0	–
Cincinnati Masters	A	A	A	A	A	Q1	A	A	A	A		0 / 0	0–0	–
Shanghai Masters	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	NH			0 / 0	0–0	–
Paris Masters	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A		0 / 0	0–0	–
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	2–2	0–0	0–0	0–0	0 / 2	2–2	50%
National representation
Summer Olympics	A	Not Held			A	Not Held				A		0 / 0	0–0	–
Davis Cup	A	A	A	A	A	Z1	PO	QR	QR	A		0 / 0	2–5	29%
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–1	0–21	0–1	1–1	0–0	0 / 0	3–6	33%
Career statistics
Titles / Finals	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0
Overall win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–1	2–5	5–14	1–4	1–2	0–1	10–27		28%
Year-end ranking	899	484	1400T	484	320	243	110	124	129	219	347	$701,151

Wins over top 20 players

Season	2019	Total
Wins	1	1

#	Player	Rank	Event	Surface	Rd	Score	PG Rank
2019
1.	Nikoloz Basilashvili	18	Indian Wells Masters, USA	Hard	2nd	6–4, 6–7(6–8), 7–6(7–4)	97

References

1. "Prajnesh Gunneswaran | Overview | ATP Tour | Tennis". ATP Tour. Archived from the original on 6 May 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
2. "Prajnesh Gunneswaran | Overview | ATP Tour | Tennis". ATP Tour. Archived from the original on 6 May 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
3. "Prajnesh fights hard to claim title". 26 March 2017. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
4. "ITF profile". Archived from the original on 15 September 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
5. "Prajnesh geared up for likely Davis Cup test". 15 March 2017. Archived from the original on 26 September 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
6. Hedge, Prajwal (16 November 2024). "Prajnesh Gunneswaran, once ranked No. 75, calls it a day". The Times of India . Retrieved 25 November 2024.
7. "Prajnesh Gunneswaran fights his way into final of Pune Challenger". PTI. 23 November 2018. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
8. Patwardhan, Deepti (9 April 2017). "Davis Cup: Prajnesh Gunneswaran emerges from the shadows to make a mark against Uzbekistan". Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
9. "Prajnesh wins maiden singles title on Challenger circuit". PTI. 29 April 2018. Archived from the original on 9 December 2018. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
10. Banerjee, Krishnendu (18 November 2018). "Bengaluru Open ATP Challenger winner Prajnesh Gunneswaran targets regular World Tour appearances". Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
11. "Taipei Challenger: Yuki Bhambri, Ramkumar Ramanathan set up title clash". PTI. 14 April 2018. Archived from the original on 10 December 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
12. "French Open 2018: Prajnesh Gunneswaran makes main draw but won't take court in Paris". 27 May 2018. Archived from the original on 15 January 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
13. "Asian Games 2018: Prajnesh Gunneswaran settles for bronze in tennis". Archived from the original on 24 August 2018. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
14. "Prajnesh Gunneswaran knocked out of Maharashtra Open". 31 December 2018. Archived from the original on 17 January 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
15. "Australian Open: Prajnesh Gunneswaran loses in straight sets to American Frances Tiafoe". 14 January 2019. Archived from the original on 17 January 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
16. Judge, Shahid (10 February 2019). "Prajnesh Gunneswaran breaks into top-100 for the first time". Archived from the original on 11 February 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
17. https://www.atptour.com/en/news/getting-to-know-prajnesh-gunneswaran
18. "Prajnesh Gunneswaran rises to career-high No. 84 post Indian Wells run". PTI. 18 March 2019. Archived from the original on 3 April 2019. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
19. "#NextGenATP Clarke Claims Second Challenger Crown In Anning". Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2019.

External links

• Prajnesh Gunneswaran at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Prajnesh Gunneswaran at the International Tennis Federation
• Prajnesh Gunneswaran at the Davis Cup