India's Prajnesh Gunneswaran fails to qualify for Australian Open main draw

Indian tennis player Prajnesh Gunneswaran has missed out on qualifying for the main draw of the season-opening Australian Open after slumping to straight-sets defeat at the hands of Latvia's Ernests Gulbis in the final round of the qualifiers at the Melbourne Park on Friday. 

The 30-year-old, who is India's top-ranked player and world number 22, suffered a crushing 6-7 (2), 2-6 against Gulbis in his final qualifying round clash of the men's singles event that lasted one hour and 20 minutes. 

In the opening set, Prajnesh produced a spirited performance to push the set into the tie-breaker before he faltered to hand an early advantage to his Latvian opponent. 

Subsequently, the Indian tennis star was broken by Gulbis in the opening and third game of the second set to go down 0-3 early before the Latvian tennis player held his nerve to emerge victorious. 

Earlier on Thursday, Prajnesh rebounded strongly from a second set down to clinch 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Yannick Hanfmann of Germany in the second round of the qualifiers to keep his hopes alive of making it to the main draw of the first Grand Slam of the year. 

With Prajnesh's exit, India's campaign at the men's singles event of the Australian Open has also folded.