New Delhi, September 30: Emerging Indian tennis superstar Sumit Nagal once again proved his mettle yesterday as he clinched the ATP Challenger Tournament in Buenos Aires. Seventh-seeded Nagal registered a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 win over the Argentine 8th seed to win the $54,160 ATP Challenger tournament.
As a result of this win, Sumit will enter the top 135 of the ATP rankings when the new list is released today. Earlier this month Sumit had achieved his career-best ATP ranking of 159 after finishing runner-up in the Banja Luka ATP Challenger. Sumit jumped 16 places after his first-round exit in the US Open where he took a set off Swiss maestro Roger Federer before going down.
Last month, Nagal grabbed headlines after he made his Grand Slam debut and produced a spirited fight against the legendary Roger Federer in the first-round of the US Open. Nagal sent tongues wagging as he took the first set against Federer, becoming the first Indian to do so. Federer, however, staged a strong comeback to cruise to a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 win.
The 22-year-old Indian then followed it up with a runner-up finish at the Banja Luka Challenger in September. He subsequently then rose to a career-high ranking of 135 on Monday. Nagal is the first Asian to win this title. Pablo Cuevas, Kyle Edmund and Pablo Andujar are the only non-Argentine players to have won this event.
Born on August 16, 1997 in Jhajjar district of Haryana, Sumit has been an inborn sportstar since childhood. When he was seven-years-old, he was enrolled at the DDA tennis academy in Paschim Vihar. During his initial days, his parents, without missing any day, used to accompany him for the training sessions. When Sumit was nine-years-old, he overpowered an opponent two years elder to him at the Under-12 championship.
Sumit got a big help from Virat Kohli and Mahesh Bhupati. Bhupathi got Sumit in the tennis circuit by providing him the direction he required. Even after 10 years, he still is showing him the path. The Virat Kohli Foundation and its Athlete Development Program has been sponsoring Nagal’s training expenses, tournaments, nutrition and other requirements for almost two years.