Prajnesh Gunneswaran
Prajnesh Gunneswaran is an Indian tennis player.
He has won 2 ATP Challenger and 8 ITF titles in singles and 1 ITF title in doubles.
He represents India at the Davis Cup. At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, he won the bronze medal in the men's singles event. He is currently the top ranked Indian singles player and the 6th highest-ranked Indian tennis player in the Open Era.
Personal life
Prajnesh Gunneswaran is son of Mr. S G Prabhakharan and Mrs. Usha.He got married with Sudarshana Pai at Ernakularm,Kerala on 28th Nov 2019,and reception is planned at ITC Grand Chola, Chennai on 1st Dec 2019.
Career
2016–2017: Early career
Gunneswaran mainly participated in ITF and ATP Challenger events in his early years. While he won 8 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. 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.
2018: 2 ATP Challenger titles, Asian games Bronze Medal
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. In an all-Indian final, he defeated Saketh Myneni at Bengaluru Open to lift his second Challenger singles trophy. 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.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.
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.
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 104 and so became the highest ranked Indian singles player.
2019: Grand Slam main draw debut, Entry into top-100
Gunneswaran started the season by entering the Maharashtra Open, where he received a wild card into the main draw. He lost in the first round to Michael Mmoh in straight sets.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.
On 11 February 2019, he reached a career-high singles ranking of 97, debuting in the top-100 singles rankings.
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. 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. 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 75. 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 US Open in the 1st Round.
Challenger and Futures finals
Singles: 23 (10–13)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | India F6, Chennai | Futures | Hard |  Vijayant Malik | 7–6, 6–3 | |
| Win | 2–0 | Denmark F2, Aarhus | Futures | Clay |  Colin van Beem | 6–3, 4–6, 6–0 | |
| Loss | 2–1 | Egypt F26, Sharm El Sheikh | Futures | Clay |  Enrique López Pérez | 0–6, 0–6 | |
| Loss | 2–2 | India F12, Chennai | Futures | Hard | Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan | 6–7, 4–6 | |
| Loss | 2–3 | India F16, Gwalior | Futures | Hard | Ramkumar Ramanathan | 3–6, 4–6 | |
| Win | 3–3 | India F18, Jassowal | Futures | Hard | Ronit Singh Bisht | 6–4, 6–4 | |
| Loss | 3–4 | India F19, Mumbai | Futures | Hard | Ramkumar Ramanathan | 3–6, 3–6 | |
| Loss | 3–5 | Turkey F9, Antalya | Futures | Hard |  Yannick Jankovits | 6–7, 6–4, 3–6 | |
| Win | 4–5 | India F4, Chennai | Futures | Clay | Sriram Balaji | 3–6, 7–5, 7–6 | |
| Loss | 4–6 | India F6, Coimbatore | Futures | Hard | Sanam Singh | 3–6, 6–3, 4–6 | |
| Loss | 4–7 | 2016 KPIT MSLTA Challenger – Singles| | Pune, India | Challenger | Hard | Sadio Doumbia | 6–4, 4–6, 3–6 |
| Win | 5–7 | India F4, Bhilai | Futures | Hard | Sriram Balaji | 6–4, 6–2 | |
| Loss | 5–8 | India F5, Bangalore | Futures | Hard | Sriram Balaji | 6–2, 3–6, 4–6 | |
| Win | 6–8 | India F6, Trivandrum | Futures | Clay | Sriram Balaji | 7–5, 6–3 | |
| Win | 7–8 | China F10, Kunshan | Futures | Hard |  Li Zhe | 6–3, 6–1 | |
| Loss | 7–9 | China F11, Shenzhen | Futures | Hard | Zhang Zhizhen | 6–2, 5–7, 0–5 ret. | |
| Loss | 7–10 | Indonesia F8, Jakarta | Futures | Hard |  Lee Duck-hee | 3–6, 6–4, 6–7 | |
| Win | 8–10 | India F3, Chandigarh | Futures | Hard |  Lý Hoàng Nam | 6–3, 6–4 | |
| Win | 9–10 | 2018 Kunming Open – Men's Singles| | Anning, China, P.R. | Challenger | Clay |  Mohamed Safwat | 5–7, 6–3, 6–1 |
| Loss | 9–11 | 2018 Ningbo Challenger – Singles| | Ningbo, China, P.R. | Challenger | Hard |  Thomas Fabbiano | 6–7, 6–4, 3–6 |
| Win | 10–11 | 2018 Bengaluru Open – Singles| | Bangalore, India | Challenger | Hard | Saketh Myneni | 6–2, 6–2 |
| Loss | 10–12 | 2018 KPIT MSLTA Challenger – Singles| | Pune, India | Challenger | Hard |  Elias Ymer | 2–6, 5–7 |
| Loss | 10–13 | 2019 Kunming Open – Men's Singles| | Anning, China, P.R. | Challenger | Clay |  Jay Clarke | 4–6, 3–6 |
Doubles: 3 (1–2)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | Egypt F25, Sharm El Sheikh | Futures | Clay | Issam Haitham Taweel | Filippo Borella Aleksandr Ivanovich Spirin | 6–3, 6–2 | |
| Loss | 1–1 | 2017 Samarkand Challenger – Doubles| | Samarkand, Uzbekistan | Challenger | Hard | Vishnu Vardhan |  Laurynas Grigelis Zdeněk Kolář | 6–7, 3–6 |
| Loss | 1–2 | 2018 Santaizi ATP Challenger – Doubles| | Taipei, Taiwan | Challenger | Carpet | Saketh Myneni |  Matthew Ebden Andrew Whittington | 4–6, 7–5, |