Sumit Nagal's Story: How He Became The First Indian Man In 35 Years To Beat A Seed At Grand Slam

Indian tennis ace Sumit Nagal entered the Australian Open second round for the first time in his career here on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old Nagal, who made it to the main draw through the qualifiers, beat 31st seed Bublik 6-4 6-2 7-6(7-5) in a gruelling match that lasted two hours and 38 minutes. Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan is world number 27.

Sumit Nagal/ PTI

This is the first time in 35 years that an Indian beat a seeded player in a Grand Slam. The last time it happened was in 1989 when Ramesh Krishnan won over Mats Wilander, the then-world number one and defending champion at the Australian Open.

Nagal, who became the sixth Indian player to win a junior Grand Slam title in 2015, is currently the highest-ranked Indian singles tennis player.

Nagal's first progression to Australian Open second round

This would be Nagal's first-ever progression to the second round of the Australian Open. In 2021, he had lost to Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis in the opening round 2-6, 5-7, 3-6.

The world number 139 Indian will be playing in the second round of a Grand Slam event for the second time in his career.

AP

In the 2020 US Open, Nagal had lost to second seed and eventual champion Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 in the second round.

How Nagal beat World Number 27

Nagal was off to an impressive start as he broke Bublik in the first game of the match, but he also failed to hold on to his own serve next as the scoreline read 1-1.

The Indian then broke his opponent's serve twice later in the first set to take it 6-4 in 42 minutes.

Nagal played even better in the second set, breaking his opponent's serve twice while holding his own all the way through to win 6-2 in 43 minutes.

AP

In the third set, both the players held their serve till the seventh game when Nagal broke his opponent to take a 4-3 lead. He then cruised ahead at 5-3.

Nagal then served for the match at 5-4 but failed to hold. The third set then went to the tie-breaker, which Nagal eventually won 7-5.

Sumit Nagal's story: An inspiration indeed

Born in 1997 in Haryana, Sumit Nagal began playing tennis at the age of eight at a local sports club.

At just ten years old, he was selected to join Mahesh Bhupathi's training academy as part of the first batch of Mahesh Bhupathi's Apollo Tyres Mission 2018 programme.

AP

Nagal won his 1st ever ITF Futures title by defeating Gustavo Vellbach 6每2, 6每0 at the India F8 tournament.

Nagal then won India F11 by defeating compatriot Ronit Singh Bisht 6每3, 6每4.

Nagal won the 2015 Wimbledon boys' doubles title with his Vietnamese partner L? Ho角ng Nam, defeating Reilly Opelka and Akira Santillan in the final.

In 2016, Nagal made his Davis Cup debut for India in the 2016 World Group Playoff tie against Spain in New Delhi. He then won Hungary F7 by defeating Peter Nagy 7每6(7每3), 6每1.

2019 proved to be a breakthrough year for Nagal: he qualified to make his grand slam main draw debut at the 2019 US Open. He faced Roger Federer in his opening-round match. He lost the match but took the first set against the multiple grand slam champion.

AFP

At the 2020 US Open, Nagal won his opening-round match against Bradley Klahn, thus becoming the first Indian since Somdev Devvarman at the 2013 US Open to win a singles match in the main draw of a Grand Slam. But he lost the second round.

In 2021, Nagal made his Olympic debut and became the first Indian in 25 years to reach the second round of an Olympic singles tennis event.

For more news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.