India’s Sumit Nagal shocked world number 22 Chile’s Cristian Garin and defeated him 6-4, 6-3 to enter his career’s maiden ATP tour quarterfinal at the Argentina Open ATP 250 tournament in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.
In what can be called as the 23-year-old’s biggest win on the ATP tour, Nagal played some exquisite tennis shots against this 2nd seeded opponent.
Nagal will play Spain”s Albert Ramos-Vinolas, in what will be the Indian”s first-ever quarterfinal appearance at the ATP Tour level.
Ramos-Vinolas had defeated Domnik Koepfer of Germany 7-5 6-4.
Nagal was lately going through a lean patch and had crashed out of the Australian Open after his first round defeat against Lithuania’s Ricardas Beranki 2-6, 5-7, 3-6. The Jhajjar-born had also lost at the Murray River Open, the tournament just ahead of the decade’s first Grand Slam in Melbourne.
It was Berankis again who ended the journey of the youngster, who was dismantled by the world number 72 in the USD $320,775 ATP 250 event in Melbourne.
Then world number 139 Nagal lost 2-6, 2-6 after failing to convert any of his two break chances. He had dropped his serve four times in the match.
First top 25 win ✅@ArgentinaOpen pic.twitter.com/3YhTOfkbcF
— Sumit Nagal (@nagalsumit) March 4, 2021
Earlier in 2020, India’s top-ranked men’s singles player Sumit Nagal reached the second round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career when he beat USA’s Bradley Klahn 6-1, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in their US Open 2020 men’s singles 1st-round match.
In the process Nagal became the first Indian men’s singles player to win a Grand Slam main draw match since Somdev Devvarman in 2013.
Somdev had reached the 2nd round at 3 majors, barring Wimbledon, in 2013.
However, the youngster’s US Open 2020 campaign came to an end in the 2nd round after he lost in straight sets to Dominic Thiem, who went on to win his maiden Grand Slam in the tournament. Nagal went down 3-6, 3-6, 2-6 to Austrian world number 3 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium which was nearly empty.
