Australian Open: India's Prajnesh Gunneswaran crashes out in opening round

Meanwhile, Nick Kyrgios, Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev of Germany have all stormed into the second round of the Australia Open after winning their respective first matches.

Image Credits: Twitter/@maharashtraopen

Indian tennis player Prajnesh Gunneswaran suffered a major blow as he knocked out in the opening round of the ongoing Australia Open after slumping to straight-sets defeat at the hands of Japanese wildcard Tatsumo Ito at Melbourne Park on Tuesday. 

The 30-year-old, who qualified for the main draw of the first major of the season as a lucky loser, failed to win even a set for the fifth time in five Grand Slam matches he played and went down fighting 4-6, 2-6, 5-7 against Tatsumo in a thrilling clash of the men's singles event that lasted over two hours.

As a result, Japanese tennis player Tatsumo will now lock horns with Serbian tennis maestro and world number two Novak Djokovic in the second round of the tournament. 

After failing to qualify for the main draw of the Australia Open with straight-sets defeat against Latvia's Ernests Gulbis, Prajnesh made it to the main draw as lucky loser after direct entrants Australia's Alex de Minaur and Polish star Kamil Majchrzak withdrew from the tournament with their respective injuries and Nicolas Jarry of Chile was suspended for a doping violation.

Elsewhere, Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios, world number five Dominic Thiem of Austria, seventh-ranked Alexander Zverev of Germany have all stormed into the second round of the Australia Open after winning their respective first matches. 

Kyrgios swept aside of Lorenzo Sonego of Italy 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-1) in the opening round to set up a clash against  Frenchman Gilles Simon for a place in the third round. 

While Thiem registered a comfortable 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 win over Adrian Mannarino of France to storm into the second round, Zverer brushed aside Italy's Marco Cecchinato 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 in the opening round of the men's singles event. 

Thiem will square off with Australia's Alex Bolt in the next round. Zverer, on the other hand, will face the winner of another first-round match between Norway’s Casper Ruud or Egor Gerasimov of Belarus.