India's Prajnesh Gunneswaran qualifies for Australian Open main draw as lucky loser

Image Credits: Twitter/@MaharashtraOpen

In what may come as a major boost for Indian fans, tennis player Prajnesh Gunneswaran has qualified for the main draw of the season-opening Australian Open as a lucky loser. 

On Friday, the 30-year-old was ruled out of the contention of making it to the main draw of the first Grand Slam of the season after slumping to straight-sets defeat at the hands of Latvia's Ernests Gulbis in the final round of the qualifiers of the men's singles event. 

Prajnesh,  who is India's top-ranked player and world number 22, suffered a crushing 6-7 (2), 2-6 defeat against Gulbis in the clash that lasted one hour and 20 minutes. 

However, the Indian tennis player is now all set to feature in the Australian Open main draw 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.

Prajnesh, who will be making his fifth straight appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam, will square off with Tatsuma Ito of Japan in the opening round on Monday.

Notably, a lucky loser is a player who loses a clash in the qualifying round of a knockout tournament but makes it to the main draw after a direct entrant withdraws from the event.