Sumit Nagal thread

[Sin Hombre]

I feel a mature Sumit will have the strongest peak level of any Indian in the last 2 decades. This guy, as we saw when he destroyed Yuki a couple of years back, really demolishes players when he gets going.

[punarayan]

I was impressed by his speed the first time I saw him. Injuries seem to have played a role. Apart from Somdev, he seems to be the quickest of the lot over the past 50 years. Does he have a chance to make the US Open qualies?

[sameerph]

Yes, US open qualies is secured for Sumit with his current live ranking of 224.

I feel a mature Sumit will have the strongest peak level of any Indian in the last 2 decades. This guy, as we saw when he destroyed Yuki a couple of years back, really demolishes players when he gets going.

That could be possible. For that he has to rise above best of Somdev, Yuki, Prajnesh, RamK and Saketh. On clay at least I think he at best is better than all of them. Will have to see if he can do it on other surfaces as well.

Apart from quickness around the court, he has ability to slug it out from the back of the court for a long time. Yesterday, there was a 40 shot rally followed by a 34 shot rally both won by Sumit against top level Europeans. Do not recall any Indians being able to play in this manner in a long time.

[sameerph]

Sumit lost the first set 1-6 and was down 2-4 in the second set.

But,he has just won the next 4 games to fight back and take the second set 6-4 against Gombos.

What a fightback from what looked like a hopeless situation. Hope he continues that in third set.

[jayakris]

Again down 0-2 in the third set... 1-3... Now 2-4 and serving. Sumit is playing quite okay but Gombos is red-hot and not missing anything. Sumit dug himself out of a 15-40 hole to take it to multiple deuces and saved 3 BPs but made three unforced errors also. Broken again. 2-5 and in deep trouble now. He should have held serve there. Facing serve now. Saved one match pt with a 17 shot rally from 40-0, but fell at the second MP

At € 69K+H Bratislava Challenger 2019, Slovakia

[SF] (16) Sumit Nagal (IND,251) l. (8) Norbert Gombos (SVK,202) 16 64 26

[PKBasu]

Sumit faced the gauntlet of the Slovak All-Stars this week. He beat the #1 and 2 (the top and 3rd seeds) but lost narrowly to the #3 local player today (the 8th seed). So he narrowly missed leaping to his career high ranking today. Anyway a great run in the clay Challengers this year for Sumit.

[jaydeep]

Yes, a good week for Sumit ... Next week, Sumit is having a bye as a seeded player in the Milan Challenger.

At $54K+H Milan Challenger 2019, Italy

[R1] (8) Sumit Nagal (IND,251) bye

[sameerph]

Sumit is playing quite okay but Gombos is red-hot and not missing anything.

True in the first 2 sets too Gombos was in top form and was near perfect. He did go on to win the title winning the final in 3 sets.

So, bit of bad luck for Sumit to be losing fourth challenger semi final in couple of months. Hopefully, one of these days he will overcome this SF jinx. Anyway, he is now ranked at 224 just 11 shy of his career best ranking of 213. And if he continues this career high and later top 200 is not too far.

[jayakris]

I was beginning to even wonder if it was all over for Sumit after that year-long disappearing act. So nice to see that he is back.

[jaydeep]

Sumit enters into the third round with an easy straight sets win over Grigelis ... Next, he is facing Martin Cuevas.

At $54K+H Milan Challenger 2019, Italy

[R2] (8) Sumit Nagal (IND,224) bt Laurynas Grigelis (LTU,293) 62 63

[R3] (8) Sumit Nagal (IND,224) vs Martin Cuevas (URU,329)

[vparam]

1 more win for Sumit will have him very close to his career high ranking. Go Sumit!

[PKBasu]

Should be another routine win. Interesting that his opponent is the younger brother of Rohan Bopanna's current doubles partner (who won the French Open doubles title in 2008, when he was 22).

[PKBasu]

Sumit broke Martin Cuevas in the first game and took the first set 6-3. It is 1-all in the second set now.

[jayakris]

Looks like Sumit advanced with a 63 21 (Ret.)

[sameerph]

Yes, his opponent retired in the second set.

At $54K+H Milan Challenger 2019, Italy

[R3] (8) Sumit Nagal (IND,224) d. Martin Cuevas (URU,329) 62 21 retd.

Next,

[QF] (8) Sumit Nagal (IND,224) vs. Aslan Karatsev (RUS,343)