Melbourne, Jan 14 (PTI) Prajnesh Gunneswaran advanced to the second round of the Australian Open qualifiers but Ramkumar Ramanathan frittered away a one-set advantage to make an exit, here Tuesday.

Prajnesh knocked out local wild card Harry Bourchier 6-2 6-4 to set up second round clash with Germany's Yannick Hanfmann.

Ramkumar led against 15th seed Argentine before losing steam to suffer a 6-4 4-6 1-6 defeat to yet again collapse in the Qualifiers of a Grand Slam.

Prajnesh had last year competed in main draws of all four majors of the season.

Sumit Nagal, who enjoyed a breakthrough 2019 season, will open his campaign in the qualifiers against Egypt's Mohamed Safwat.

In the women's qualifiers, India's lone contender Ankita Raina went down fighting 2-6 6-7(2) against Bulgaria's Viktoriya Tomova.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)