Amid off-court tussle with AITA, Sumit Nagal fails to deliver on court at China Open

New Delhi: India’s top-ranked tennis player Sumit Nagal’s early exit woes continue to haunt him on the tennis court. On Tuesday, September 24, the 27-year-old went down against Russia’s Pavel Kotov in straight games in the first qualifying round of the China Round that lasted for 1 hour and 52 minutes.

In the middle of the ongoing scuffle with the All India Tennis Association (AITA) over missing out on Davis Cup participation in Sweden, the World No.73 Sumit Nagal failed to live up to the expectations with another early stage defeat.

Against an opponent in Kotov, whom the Indian star played for the first time on the ATP tour, Nagal found it going hard right from the start. The Russian banked on the three break points available in the opening set with a rollicking start. Despite breaking Kotov’s serve once, Sumit never caught his opponent, struggling to get his best.

The Indian particularly struggled with his serves, managing to convert 44% points from the first serve and 33% points from the second serve in the first set. He also struggled with the returns on first serve with only six of 24 returns were successfully responded. Nagal’s unforced errors (17) were slightly more in contrast to Kotov’s (14) in the first set.

Sumit resists in Set 2 but Kotov prevails

Nagal showed improvement in the second set despite dropping the first serve. He forced the set to a decider with 25 serve points, a bit improvement from the first set – 56% in the first serve. Five of the six net points were converted and 18 out of 48 return points won.

Kotov held the composure in the decider, denying Nagal to break the serve, and eventually advanced to the second qualifying round, where he will face against Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain.

For Nagal, the underwhelming season continues with first round exits in the Paris Olympics, US Open, and Winston-Salem Open. The Indian tennis player needs a massive revival path to restore his career-best ranking of World No.68, which was achieved in July before the Olympic Games in Paris.