US Open 2019: Prajnesh Gunneswaran leads Indian charge in singles

No. 89 ranked Prajnesh Gunneswaran is the highest ranked Indian in the ATP singles rankings. Perhaps not surprisingly, he is also the first Indian in the main draw of the 2019 US Open singles competition.

The 29-year-old, a late bloomer, made his Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open this year, where he went down in straight sets to young American Frances Tiafoe.

Here's a look at the highlights of that match:

The Indian qualified for his first ATP Masters 1000 tournament at Indian Wells. He upset Frenchman Benoit Paire in straight sets and 17th seed Nikoloz Basilashvili in three sets before Ivo Karlovic ended his inspiring run in the third round.

On his French Open debut later in the season, Gunneswaran managed only five games in a disappointing straight-sets defeat to Bolivia's Hugo Dellien.

A first Challenger final of the season at the Anning Challenger helped Gunneswaran ascend to a career-high World No. 75 and earned him a place in the main draw at Wimbledon. He pushed Canada's Milos Raonic to a first set tiebreak at SW19 before fading away in the next two sets.

Gunnesraran plays his fourth Grand Slam of the year and fourth of his career at Flushing Meadows next week. He has his work cut out in the first round, as he meets recent Cincinnati winner Daniil Medvedev of Russia.

Perhaps it may not be a bad time to play the red-hot Medvedev though, as the Russian played an exhausting 16 matches in three consecutive weeks in the lead-up to the final Grand Slam event of the year in New York. A maiden Grand Slam match win against a top-5 player would be a tremendous achievement for the lad from Chennai.

Another Indian, Sumit Nagal, who is in the third round of qualifying, could join Gunneswaran in the singles main draw.

Somdev Devvarman (beat Lukas Lacko in 2013 first round) remains the last Indian player to win a main draw singles match at the US Open.