Davis Cup: Prajnesh Gunneswaran loses to Berrettini as India stares at elimination

Andreas Seppi experienced some early hiccups before getting past Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-4 6-2 in the opening rubber, while 22-year-old Matteo Berrettini made a winning Davis Cup debut, cruising past India number one Prajnesh Gunneswaran 6-4 6-3.

With 0-2 down, India’s doubles pairing of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan finds itself in a must-win situation on Saturday. For Italy, top-ranked singles player Marco Cecchinato will pair up with Simone Bolelli. “Focus is on (Saturday). We know we have a job at hand. It will be a lot harder. No time to give up now,” said non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi.

India had bounced back from a similar situation to win in China 3-2 in the Asia/Oceania Group I rubber last year and Bhupathi drew inspiration from that turnaround. “Italy is so much more experienced. If you take your chances, you get rewarded. We understand the pressure of playing for the country. Strange things happen, it has happened in China. I know Italians are stronger than Chinese, but we will take one match at a time,” said a confident Bhupathi.

Italy opted to go with Berrettini ahead of Cecchinato and the youngster did not disappoint, breaking Prajnesh’s serve in the first set. As the set wore on, Prajnesh looked more settled as his serves started getting better. Both players held their serves until the Italian sealed the issue in the 10th game, without a dropping a point.

Berrettini began the second set exactly the way he started the first, breaking Prajnesh to take a 1-0 lead. The crowd did their best, but the nerves soon started playing on the Indian, who remained in the game by holding his serve till the seventh game.

Berrettini effortlessly made it 5-3, racing through his service game before breaking Prajnesh again in the ninth. After two early errors, Prajnesh clawed his way back to make it 30-all, but the Italian capitalised on another error to secure a match point.

Prajnesh hit a forehand right into the middle of the net to concede Berrettini the match and Italy a huge 2-0 advantage. “I was dreaming about this as a child. I was focused on the match. I’m really enjoying the moment and I’m glad it went my way,” said Berrettini.

Earlier, Andreas Seppi overcame early jitters to beat Ramkumar in straight sets, giving Italy a 1-0 lead. The World No. 37 was slow off the blocks, but hit top gear in the second set to complete a 6-4 6-2 win in an hour and 11 minutes.