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14 year old Sumit Nagal has earned his own thread, in my view, by winning the ITF grade-3 event in Calcutta this week. And we will remember it too because the kid (born 16th August 1997) won his first junior ITF title on the day in which Calcutta's pride, Leander Paes, completed a career Grand Slam in men's doubles.

Sumit's achievement was all the more notable because he beat the Taiwanese top seed (ranked 103 among the world's juniors) in the SF, and the third seed in the second round in easy straight sets. Clearly a kid with a bright future. Alongwith RamK, Sumit represents the future of Indian tennis. May he go from strength to strength!

This thread is way too early, PKB. But the kid seems to be the real thing. Jay

Yeah, I also felt the same.

It IS early, but a really talented junior is one that we can begin following early as well. I think Sumit Nagal is that kind of ultra-talented kid, as demonstrated this week and in that tournament for youngsters he won last year in the US.

I too think that it is bit premature to have this thread but then I think we also had a thread for Yuki pretty early when he was 14 & now it is 72 pages old. Hopefully, this will grow the same way. As I posted in the tournament thread , Sumit is now the highst ranked 14 year old in the IT junior rankings at 231.

This is a nice article on him -

First ITF title in bag, Nagal aims higher

I am glad to read that he is settled in Canada but even more glad to learn (assume) that his parents are not micro-managing his career. This is a good sign.

A clay court specialist too!

His next assignment - Albert Alcaraz Ivorra - although only two years Sumit’s senior had had a vast experience playing the men’s futures and challenger circuit and even entering last year’s Madrid Masters as a qualifier. Facing the 6’ 3” Spaniard, who had grown up on clay courts was never going to be easy but Sumit showed great grit.

“His serve was too good and at 2-1 down in the first set he won 16 points in a row to lead 5-2, and I was amazed but I didn’t give up. I knew he wouldn’t be able to sustain it for too long and I waited for my chance. At 5-3 he missed some shots and he started getting angry and I got my chance to make it 5-5 and then take it to tiebreak,”

Wow, he beat a 16 year old clay specialist who qualified into Madrid Masters last year?! That is really a fantastic performance. As you know, qualifying into a Masters series event is even tougher than being a Grand Slam qualifier.

I was getting excited and did a FACT check on the news item. Well, what do you know?

Edit: Albert Alcaraz Ivorra played as a Wild card in Q1 of last year's Madrid masters qualifiers and lost 1-6, 1-6. Albert never entered Madrid Masters as a qualifier!

all these newspaper articles! grrr....

Proabably the article meant to say that he played qualifiers but did not put it properly. It never said that he qualified for the masters. At least I understood it like it ( perhaps because I never imagined someone who qualified for masters will ever come & play grade 3 junior event in India.)

yes, the writer probably meant something else, but wrote this:

Albert Alcaraz Ivorra - although only two years Sumit’s senior had had a vast experience playing the men’s futures and challenger circuit and even entering last year’s Madrid Masters as a qualifier.

That is just plain misleading. After all, Albert did not even qualify for the qualifier of Madrid Masters! He was using a wild card.


Anyways, even without that "qualification"; beating a 6' 3'' Spaniard, two years older, on red-clay, in the finals, is a big achievement! So, WELL DONE Sumit Nagal!!

Sumit Nagal has made the SF of a grade 4 tournament on clay in Panama.

At Panama Bowl 2012 ( ITF juniors grade 4 )

[R1] (2) Sumit NAGAL (IND) d. Sebastian SANCHEZ (COL) 6-2 6-1
[R2] (2) Sumit NAGAL (IND) d. Anthony SCHOHN (FRA) 6-1 6-4
[QF] (2) Sumit NAGAL (IND) d. Javier RESTREPO (USA) 3-6 6-1 6-3

Next,

[SF] (2) Sumit NAGAL (IND) v. Drew HALBAUER (USA)

Sumit reached the final.

At Panama Bowl 2012 ( ITF juniors grade 4 )

[SF] (2) Sumit NAGAL (IND) d. Drew HALBAUER (USA) 57 62 62

Next,

[F] (2) Sumit NAGAL (IND) v. Seong Chan HONG (KOR)

Korean Hong is another 14 yeard old who seems to be doing well. So, final will be between 2 talented 14 year olds from Asia.

Sumit lost a close match in the final.

[F] (2) Sumit NAGAL (IND) l. Seong Chan HONG (KOR) 75 67(9) 57

Still, good tournament for Sumit on clay.

Looking at the score both 14 yrs kids played very long match ... This Hong looks talented, I think this was second time he defeated Nagal.