Prajnesh Gunneswaran: 'Davis Cup format change would not matter to me'
The 29-year-old Prajnesh Gunneswaran is another late bloomer on the ATP Tour, overcoming knee issues and playing his career-best tennis in 2018, playing in four Challenger finals and winning two titles to come on the verge of the top-100. The Chennai native is ready to chase even higher goals in 2019, qualifying for the first Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne to sit just outside the elite group. Prajnesh will lead the Indian Davis Cup squad against Italy in Kolkata on grass this week, hoping to bring his best tennis and topple the guest squad together with Ramkumar Ramanathan, Saketh Myneni, Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan who will defend the national colors with him.
Prajnesh is fine with the fact Davis Cup has switched to the best-of-three format instead of longer and more demanding best-of-five matches, also with a two-day action instead of a Friday-Saturday-Sunday pattern that was always the case in the most prestigious team competition. Gunneswaran will most likely play singles rubbers against Marco Cecchinato and Andreas Seppi, seeking two huge points for his country and an overall win that would propel India towards the Davis Cup final in Madrid in November.
“Honestly, the change in format would not really matter to me. It’s a bit more physical if we play five sets and in best of three anything can happen. It’s in two days and not three days so I don’t really see too much of a difference,” Prajnesh said. “I’ve had enough tournaments and over the last couple of years and I’ve had a very good run in the last six months and I’m looking forward to using the momentum and trying to do as well as possible here. I’m just going to approach it like every other match.
I focus, prepare for my match and then I try to execute my game plan and don’t worry too much about the situation or what’s on the line and all of that. I am playing a few Challengers, first one in China and then there are two in Bangkok so I will be playing those.”
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2sVVJma
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