Espoo (Finland): Prajnesh Gunneswaran loses from a low-ranked player in the Davis Cup to leave the Indian Trail 0-1 in the world group I bind Finland, here on Friday.
Against Otto Virtanen, the lowest rank of 419 in the ATP ranking chart, Prajnesh ranks 165 losing 3-6 6-7 (1) in just one hour 25 minutes.
Ramkumar Ramanathan now needs to defeat Finnish number one player, Enil Ruusuvuori, who is ranked 74th in the world to keep India in hunting.
It was a good draw for India with prajnesh playing first against low-ranked players but Virtanen smoothly and walked away with an easy victory.
Prajnesh saved two early breaks but dropped service in the sixth match to lagging in the opening set.
The left hander got the chance to step down when Virtanen blamed double in Deuce Point in the next match but Prajnesh could not take advantage of the opportunity.
Virtanen presents a set without a commotion in the ninth game.
With home support, Virtan keeps Indians under the pump.
Prajnesh returned in danger of dropping earlier serving in the second set but he managed to hold the third match after several points deuce.
Prajnesh continued to fight up to 4-all but dropped 0-40 after undergoing a double mistake in the ninth game.
However, he saved five breakpoints and finally held a game with a good drop shot.
Indians serve the 11th match set of love and now need to destroy rivals, which play easily.
He got a small chance when Virtanen hit a forehand on the internet at Deuce Point but Finland took a US card at the break point.
Finally he went to the tie-breaker, where Prajnesh fell behind 0-3 and then 1-5.
A slanted serving that Prajnesh could not return to gave the home point players, which he converted with easy winners.