:-Abhijit Deshmukh
Pune:-On wednesday when India's top ranked singles tennis player Prajnesh Gunneswaran, stepped on to the Centre Court of Balewadi tennis stadium in Pune, it was an emotional moment. Just few days ago, Prajnesh's father SG Prabhakaran passed away fighting to cancer in Chennai. The Indian who played in the singles of all the four major grand slamsthis year, could have opted out of KPIT MSLTA ATP challenger event,but it was his father wish that he should continue playing tennis even after his death.
Playing his first match of the tournament, prajnesh came all gunsfiring against Chandril Sood. The top seed was too fast and furious for Sood who had no answers to his opponents lethal 190km/h serve . First set was winded up 6-1 in just 20 minutes by Prajnesh. In second set, Sood should some resistance winning three games but it wasn'tenough to stop Prajnesh. In less than 50 minutes Prajnesh defeated Sood 6-1, 6-3 to advance into the pre-quarterfinals.
After the match, Prajnesh said, " Although a good win but i'm struggling with my wrist injury.
I'm not using my forehand much and it will take some more time torecover completely."
On asked how emotional was to step on to the court after the loss ofhis father, Prajnesh replied " I'm playing this tournament for myfather, because he wanted me to continue and excel in the game. Hisdream was to see me succeed in tennis at big level and I won't let him down. When I came to know about my father's sickness I wanted to stoptennis and be with him. But he insisted me to continue and be on thetour. I came to know about his sickness quite late as I was kept indark so that I don't lose my focus."
On asked, how difficult it is to focus on the game, he added, " It'sunfortunate and tough phase of my life, it's difficult to focus on thegame. I tend to loose focus sometimes as thoughts of his passing awaystill goes through my mind. But I won't let him down and give my best every time I step on the tennis court".
For Prajnesh, tennis has been the biggest leveller. In pain or inhappiness, Prajnesh has not let his tennis suffer. These are the signsof the legend, breaking in to the big league.
