Tennis Star Sumit Nagal Does India Proud

While “the Prince of Monte Carlo” and “the King of Clay” have captured the headlines these past few days, India’s own Sumit Nagal is creating some giant waves, with tennis fans even having fun asking that if Nadal isn’t available, Nagal should be a shoo-in for all future tennis events!

Nagal captured the hearts of Indian fans and indeed new tennis fans around the world when he became only the second Indian tennis player after Ramesh Krishnan to make it to the second round of a Grand Slam. En route, he beat Alexander “Sascha” Bublik ranked 32 at the time.

Nagal might have an appetite for No. 32’s because when he beat Arnaldi at the Monte Carlo, the celebratory new stories toyed as if Nagal had not just won a match in the top tier level but in fact, lifted the Monte Carlo Masters title itself. While there seemed not to be, there is no ruling what the future holds given that Nagal is far rising as someone to watch out for and it is not just Indian fans saying this.

Greece’s Stephanos Tsititpas might have to contend with sharing headlines for a time with Nagal who was in the news last story highlighting the financial plights of tennis players just to stay on tour. Tsitsitpas who won the Monte Carlo Masters in 2021 and 2022 found himself making it a rather emotional hattrick in Monte Carlo 2024 after 2023 belonged to Russia’s Andrei Rublev.

But it was all about Nagal and the fact that an Indian players was making waves said it all, particularly when his name became a rather catchphrase in the tennis world, where fans interchanged the ‘g’ and the ‘d’ from the name of another famous tennis legend, egging for Nagal’s inclusion, even as a wild card in professional men’s tennis.

With clay court season in the offing, it is but natural that focus would shift heavily to concerns over whether Rafael Nadal, 14-time Roland Garros champion, will even be able to see out his career on his favourite red clay. Such have been his injury battles that his pull out from recent events have caused fans to wonder whether there would even be a farewell in the offing, as the former No. 1 himself admitted that Barcelona would not see him as a tennis player in the future.

Nagal was on fire, beating Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi in a pulsating comeback, losing the first set 5-7 but winning the next two 6-2, 6-4. Although Nagal lost in the next round to the highly pugnacious, much feted Holger Rune, seeded no.7, it was not as easy as the 20-year-old Danish would have liked.

Nagal took a set from Rune, and pushed him to a third set decider, with Rune eventually winning the match 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

If his feats seem insignificant, it is not so in the Indian context. He is the first Indian tennis player in 49 years to feature in Monte Carlo. And now, thanks to his captivating performance, sees a career high ranking of 80, breaking the top 100 ATP men’s rankings.

Little forgotten is the fact that even to enter the Monte Carlo Masters main draw, the 26 year old beat the likes of Italy’s Flavio Cobolli and Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta to get there. Nagal’s shock victory over Arnaldi was the first win for an Indian player since the introduction of the Masters 1000 series in 1990.

To jump 13 ranks was phenomenal because it now puts Nagal within the top 100. That he is the seventh high ranking Indian player since computerised tennis rankings were introduced in 1973 speaks volumes of the grit and perseverance that have kept Nagal hanging tough even when injuries and financial woes made it hard to keep himself on tour, leave alone a tour entourage of coach and physio.

Not since Prajnesh Gunneswaram in 2019 has an Indian male tennis player featured in the main draw of the French Open. But now, thanks to Nagal’s rise in the rankings, he will be a part of the main draw at Roland Garros, which will also serve this year as the precursor to the Olympics.

Nagal has become something of a social media storm, even seeing a huge rise of appeals being made on his behalf for him to be granted a visa to enter the United Kingdom to participate in Wimbledon, once he brought his own struggles to get an appointment to light.

But first with the clay court season now firmly in motion, all eyes are on the favourite surface that the 26-year-old from Haryana prefers. With a Grand Slam and the Olympics in the quick offing, Nagal’s recent speculator performances, coming on the back of a hip injury much like his hero’s which nearly tore into his confidence, have certainly set a few hearts beating in the tennis world.