North Carolina: A profligate Prajnesh Gunneswaran went down to world No.30 Benoit Paire in the second round to crash out of the Winston Salem Open ATP 250 tournament here. The left-handed Indian, ranked 89, could convert just one of his five break chances to suffer a 3-6 5-7 loss to his French opponent in a match that lasted one hour and 10 minutes on Tuesday night.

Prajnesh struggled from the beginning as Paire broke his serve to take an early 2-0 lead. The Indian could not recover from that, conceding the first set tamely. In the second set, Prajnesh held his serve but faltered in the 11th game giving Paire the match-winning lead. Serving for the match, the Frenchman made no mistakes and avenged his Indian Wells loss from earlier this year.