Monte Carlo Masters: Sumit Nagal First Indian To Qualify For Singles Main Draw In 42 Years

Indian tennis ace Sumit Nagal on Sunday defeated the world number 55 Facundo Diaz Acosta in the second and final round of the qualifiers to become the first Indian to qualify for the singles main draw of the Monte Carlo Masters tournament in the last 42 years. (More Tennis News)

India's top ranked tennis player booked his ticket to the main draw of the prestigious clay-court event after getting the better of the Argentinian Diaz Acosta in straight sets. Nagal defeated his Argentinian opponent 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 in a match that lasted 2 hours and 25 minutes.

Ramesh Krishnan was the last Indian to play in the Monte Carlo main draw in 1982. Krishnan lost in the first round.

Nagal, ranked 95th in the world, is now scheduled to compete against 88th-ranked Argentiniain Federico Coria on April 8. A win in the match will make Nagal the first Indian in history to get to the second round the clay-court tournament.

In the first qualifying round, the Indian had defeated world number 63 Flavio Cobolli of Italy in straight sets.

The unseeded 95th-ranked Indian registered a 6-2 6-3 win over eighth-seeded Cobolli.

Nagal has been in the headlines since making it to the main draw of the Australian Open in January, where he had beaten Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan before bowing out in the second round.

He then emerged triumphant in the Chennai Open before playing two more Challenger competitions, along with an ATP 500 competition (Dubai Championship) and two ATP 1000 Masters (Indian Wells and Miami).

Since his Chennai victory, Nagal has reached the semi-final only on one occasion, during the Bengaluru Challenger.

Nagal had in April this year climbed to the 95th rank, his best so far in his career. In his most recent outing, the Indian had been knocked out in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals of the Marrakech Open.

With PTI inputs