French Open Qualifiers: Gunneswaran advances to second round

Paris, Sep 21 Prajnesh Gunneswaran on Monday defeated Turkey's Cem Ilkel to advance to the second round of the French Open men's singles qualifying event.

Prajnesh, India's second-highest ranked singles tennis player, beat Ilkel 6-3, 6-1 after losing his service early in his opening round of the qualifier.

However, there was disappointment for Sumit Nagal who bowed out of the competition after suffering a close defeat. Nagal, seeded 16 lost 6-7 (4) 5-7 to Germany's seasoned player Dustin Brown in a match that lasted one hour and 47 minutes.

Another Indian featuring in the qualifying draw is Ramkumar Ramanathan, who lost to local wildcard Tristan Lamasine, 5-7, 2-6 and crashed out of the tournament.

( With inputs from IANS )