A landmark year for Indian tennis trailblazer Sumit Nagal continues to get better and better. After leaving his mark at the Monte Carlo Masters and Australian Open, the 26-year-old is now gearing up for a strong showing at the upcoming French Open, where he has qualified for the main draw. (More Tennis News)
Nagal is the first Indian man since Prajnesh Gunneswaran in 2019 to make the cut for the Roland Garros singles main draw. A career-high ATP ranking of 80 has led to Nagal's qualification, and it has been forged by a series of good results this year.
The man from Jhajjar, Haryana had prevailed over world No. 37 Matteo Arnaldi at the Monte Carlo Masters after becoming the first Indian tennis player to enter the main draw of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in 42 whole years. Before that, Nagal had undertaken a historic Australian Open campaign, winning his way through qualifying and defeating Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik in the first round of the main draw.
Nagal is gearing up for his first-ever French Open appearance with a bunch of clay court tournaments, though he has faced indifferent results there so far. India's highest-ranked singles player first lost to former junior world No. 1 Harold Mayot in the first round of the ATP 175 Bordeaux Open, then suffered defeat to world number 19 Sebastian Baez at the ATP 250 Geneva Open.
Nevertheless, the gritty player is known for his fighting spirit and will give it his all in Paris. The presence of legends of the game like Rafael Nadal (subject to fitness) and Novak Djokovic will inspire him, and Nagal is likely to face a high-ranked player in his opening clash.
But he is unlikely to be daunted by that challenge. The Haryana lad had taken a set off all-time great Roger Federer at the 2019 edition of US Open, and as he is invariably unseeded at Majors, Nagal frequently takes on top-10 players. At the Monte Carlo Masters too, he had fought hard and bagged a set against the seventh-seeded Holger Rune (now ranked 12th in ATP standings) before going down 3-6, 6-3, 2-6.
