Prajnesh Gunneswaran ended compatriot Saketh Myneni's season with a three-set win that earned him his maiden semi-final appearance at an ATP Challenger event, here today.
Third seed Myneni, troubled by right shoulder issues, could never serve the way he usually does as left-handed Prajnesh scored a 6-7(5) 6-2 6-0 win in the quarterfinals of the USD 50,000 KPIT-MSLTA Challenger.
Prajnesh, ranked 346, is up against second seed and world number 152 Korean Duckhee Lee, who ousted Kazakhstan's Dmitry Popko 6-3 6-4 in the other quarter-final.
Playing a full season after spending five years away from the courts due to recurring stress fractures in his knees, Prajnesh hit powerful forehand strokes as he broke the Davis Cupper in the fifth game to take lead.
Down by a breakpoint, Myneni netted an overhead volley and immediately clenched his shoulder.
However, Myneni hit the ball clean and effortlessly, if not hard, and showed good anticipation. Despite pain, he managed to make Prajnesh move around the court and broke back in the eighth game to make it even-stevens as he took the set via tie-breaker on fourth set point.
Two double faults and an error while picking a half-volley put Myneni down by a breakpoint in the third game, which Prajnesh won when the Vizag lad hit a forehand long.
This happened immediately after Myneni had used a pain-killing spray. After that break, Prajnesh won nine of the 10 games to close the match in his favour and is now the only Indian surviving in the singles main draw.
Myneni, who is assured of a place in the Australian Open qualifiers, has played his last match of the season.
"I had chances in the first set when he (Myneni) made a mistake. I needed to hold my nerves but I did not. He came out firing but lost rhythm due to his shoulder," Prajnesh said after the match.
"I am happy that somebody is keeping the flag high in the tournament," he said, reacting to the fact that he is only Indian left in singles.
Prjanesh said the 2016 season could be called his breakthrough year since he was away from tennis courts for four-five years due to knee problem.
He revealed that he even thought of quitting the game some two years back out of frustration but his parents urged him to continue.
Prajnesh had done extremely well in the 2007 National Championship when he emerged junior champion and ended runner-up in the men's championship.
"I had an elbow surgery after that which kept me away from the game for nine months. And then these stress fractures in knees took away a lot of my playing time," he said.
Meanwhile the other semifinal will be between Frenchman Sadio Doumbia and Serbian Nikola Milojevic.
Doumbia knocked out top seed Evgeny Donskoy 3-6 6-4 6-4 while Milojevic fought past fourth seed Spaniard Adrian Menendez-Maceiras 6-4 7-6(3).
In the doubles, top seeded Indian pair of Purav Raja and Divij Sharan stormed into the semi-finals with a 7-6(0) 6-4 win over Popko and Marat Deviatiarov.
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