Last year, the Chennai player had come through the qualifiers in Melbourne but made the cut at Wimbledon, French Open and the US Open owing to better ranking. A good draw has put Prajnesh against Japanese Tatsuma Ito, ranked 22 places below the Indian at 144.
This will be the first meeting of the duo. The 30-year-old Indian now not only has the opportunity to win his maiden Grand Slam main draw match but also to set up a showdown with Serbian great Djokovic.
Prajnesh said he is not looking beyond the first round.
“I am very happy I got the lucky loser spot and I am only thinking about my first round now. I will try to make the most of it. Ito is a very good player. He was in top-100 and is experienced. I will need to play well to beat him,” Prajnesh told PTI.
At the 2019 US Open, Sumit Nagal took on legendary Roger Federer and caused a few ripples by a taking a set off the Swiss.
The hard-working Prajnesh lost his top-100 rank towards the end of 2019 season as he suffered a few reversals. Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan had failed to enter the main draw as both of them lost in the qualifiers.