Davis Cup: Prajnesh Gunneswaran Loses To Lower-Ranked Otto Virtanen, India Down 0-1 vs Finland

Prajnesh Gunneswaran lost to Otto Virtanen in the Davis Cup to leave India trailing 0-1 in the World Group I tie against Finland.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran yet again lost to a lower-ranked player in the Davis Cup to leave India trailing 0-1 in the World Group I tie against Finland, in Espoo on Friday. Up against Otto Virtanen, ranked as low as 419 in the ATP ranking chart, the 165th ranked Prajnesh lost 3-6 6-7(1) in just one hour 25 minutes. Ramkumar Ramanathan now needs to beat Finland's number one player, Enil Ruusuvuori, who is ranked 74 in the world to keep India in the hunt. It was a good draw for India with Prajnesh playing first against a lower-ranked player but Virtanen stroked fluently and walked away with an easy win.

Prajnesh saved two breaks early but dropped serve in the sixth game to fall behind in the opening set.

The left-hander got a chance to break back when Virtanen double-faulted at deuce point in the next game but Prajnesh could not capitalise on the chance.

Virtanen served out the set without any fuss in the ninth game. With home support, Virtanen kept the Indian under the pump.

Prajnesh was again in danger of dropping serve early in the second set but he managed to hold the third game after a couple of deuce points.