India’s top tennis player With his victory over higher-ranked the Netherlands Jesper de Jong on April 30 in Rome at the ATP Challenger event, India’s Sumit Nagal made history as the first player from his country to win on European clay court.
Despite being more than 100 places behind the Indian player in the ATP single rankings, the 25-year-old Nagal upset de Jong 6-3, 6-2 to win his third ATP International title and first since his win in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2019.
Being three years young and now rated 234th in the world, Nagal’s Dutch opponent was no match for the 347th ranked player.
Nagal is a mainstay on the Indian David Cup team, and he had to play through six challenging matches, including a pair of qualifiers, to reach the final.
A Tennis Prodigy From India
A spectacular six-match undefeated run helped Nagal reach the final match of the Italy event. He played and beat Norway’s second-seeded Viktor Durasovic in a tense qualifying match and won. Indian eventually lost the second set 5-7 after winning the first 7-5. In the end, he won the decisive set, 6-2, and advanced to the main round.
He won his first qualifying round match against Jacepo Berretini of Italy and then went on to win a three-set marathon against Victor Durasovic of Norway (ATP rank 302).
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Getting Ready For The Final
The 2015 Federer boys’ doubles champion advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating local favorite Francesca Maestrelli (ATP ranking 172) and Italian wildcard Fausto Tabacco 6-3, 6-0.
After losing in the second stage of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics against Russian ace Daniil Medvedev, Nagal secured a semi-final berth in the Rome tournament by defeating another higher-ranked opponent, Max Houkes of the Netherlands.
The Indian was up against the eighth-seeded Belgian, Joris De Loore, and although dropping the first set (2-6), he won the following two sets (7-5, 6-4) to advance to the championship round.
While Indian legend Ramesh Krishnan did win a clay tournament in 1982, it was the ATP Stuttgart Open, which was a higher-level tournament on the ATP Tour.
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Conclusion
Sumit Nagal won the ATP Challenger final and became the third player in history to accomplish this feat. To add insult to injury, he made headlines by becoming the very first tennis player from his nation to win an ATP Circuit singles championship on European clay.
