Sumit Nagal is a world-class tennis player from India. Defeated higher-ranked Dutchman Jesper de Jong in an unexpected victory in Rome.
On Sunday to become the nation’s first winner of a European clay court ATP Challenger event.
Nagal, 25, won his third ATP Challenger title and first since winning in Buenos Aires in 2019 with a 6-3.
6-2 victory over de Jong, who is ranked more than 100 places higher than the Indian.
The Dutch opponent is currently ranked 234th and is three years younger than Nagal. Was easily beaten by the 347th-ranked Nagal.
A standard individual from the Indian Davis Cup crew. Nagal needed to play six intense matches, including two rounds of qualifiers, in transit to the last.
He crushed Italy’s Jacopo Berretini in the principal round of qualifiers prior to conquering an extreme test from Norway’s higher-positioned rival Victor Durasovic (ATP rank 302) in a tiring three-setter to get a spot in the fundamental round.
After defeating home favorite Francesco Maestrelli (ATP 172) in the first round. The 2015 Wimbledon boys’ doubles champion defeated Italy’s wildcard Fausto Tabacco 6-3, 6-0 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Nagal, who had crushed Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin in the principal round of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics prior to going down to Russian pro-Daniil Medvedev in the subsequent round.
Crushed another higher-positioned rival in Netherlands’ Maximum Houkes to get a spot in the semi-last in the Rome occasion.
Indian player Joris De Loore, who was seeded eighth, was a tough Belgian opponent. The Indian player lost the first set to the player ranked 198th, 2-6, but won the next two, 7-5, 6-4, to advance to the title round.
Ramesh Krishnan, a legendary Indian tennis player, had won the ATP Stuttgart Open on clay in 1982, but that was an ATP Tour event, a tournament of a higher level.