Melbourne
Prajnesh, ranked 122nd in the world and seeded 17th in the qualifiers, lost 6-7 (2) 2-6 to Gulbis in his final round qualifying match.
Prajnesh had earlier defeated local wildcard Harry Bourchier and Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann.
It was a close first set which went into tie-break, where Prajnesh faltered to hand early advantage to his opponent. In the second set, Gulbis broke Prajnesh in the first and third games to race to a 3-0 lead.
From there on, the Indian found it tough as Gulbis held his serve to close out the contest that lasted for one hour and 20 minutes.
With Prajnesh’s ouster, India’s campaign in the singles ended.
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