Sumit Nagal thread

[jayakris]

Good win for Sumit and he's lucky to get an ALT in Q2 (Hong ranked 227) instead of 124 ranked Watanuki. He should definitely be favored to qualify.

Favored, yes, but this match may not be easy, unless Sumit is in his top form (i.e, not tired or dinged up)

[jayakris]

So far so good... Sumit took the Q2 first set 6-2 against Hong

[Sanjay]

Big drop off in S2. Down 1-4 now. This set may be hard to come back from but he has to pick up the pace.

[Sanjay]

About to lose the match 3-5 in S3.

[Sanjay]

Yes! The break to make it 5-5 in S3!

CMON SUMIT!

[jayakris]

[Q2] (8) Sumit Nagal (IND,101) l. (ALT) Seongchan Hong (KOR,227), 62 26 67(4)

So Sumit fails to solve the Hong conundrum for a 4th time. That guy has an old style game with a one-handed BH that is extremely accurate. Sumit needed to move up and kill his BH shots more often. He tried to, but made a few mistakes at the net too. Not his day. I had a bad hunch about this match. Wish I was wrong.

[vparam]

Made a few mistakes at the net? Sorry, but Sumit is clueless in terms of putting away a volley. He either volleys it back to his opponent or dumps it into the net. I give him credit for coming to the net at the right time, but has no idea what to do once he’s there. Hopefully he’s gets a lucky loser spot into the main draw.

[arjun2761]

Poor loss for Sumit unless he was hampered in some way! Or perhaps, Hong just has his number.

In any case, a decent payday for him but he needs to start getting some ATP tour level wins if he hopes to progress in the top 100.

[jayakris]

Made a few mistakes at the net? Sorry, but Sumit is clueless in terms of putting away a volley.

Haha, I was being charitable. He was quite atrocious at the net ... He needs to put in some work on this. Volleying can't be this difficult!

[jayakris]

Poor loss for Sumit unless he was hampered in some way! Or perhaps, Hong just has his number.

If people dare Sumit to move up constantly, he can be beaten, because he doesn't do that well at all. Nobody would try it like this, but in Hong's case, that seems to be his game.

I was reminded of Leander running down heat missiles and hitting one backhand punch after another at a young Federer and beating him on these same courts in IW qualies over two decades ago. Just that LP was not hitting them to Federer's sweet spots and hoping for Fed to make highschooler volley mistakes... because Fed wouldn't, even at age 19.

[Sanjay]

Sumit's game wasn't there today and he missed many easy volleys. I was hopeful he would pull out the tie-breaker but alas.
Hong was actually pretty good and he could hang in there. He seems like he should be in the top 100.

[sameerph]

I watched the first set and Sumit was very dominant in that set and looked to be cruising thru. Hong was making a lot of mistakes at that point of time. Watched start of the second set till Sumit was broken and there seemed to be perceptible drop of energy from Sumit and it gave a chance to Hong to get back and it looked he improved his game by leaps and bounds later.

Hope Sumit can somehow get a lucky loser spot.

[Sanjay]

What is the criteria to get the LL spot? Among the losing finalists in the qualies + luck?

I just saw that Kwon Soon-woo who lost to Hong is among the 10 players ever to win an ATP tournament after getting an LL spot.

[sameerph]

^^^ He is the second highest ranked player to lose in final qualifying round. So, I think he needs 2 withdrawals from main draw to make it in.

[Sanjay]

According to wikipedia

In tennis, the rule for choosing a player to enter the main draw as a lucky loser is as follows: from all players eliminated in the final round of qualifying, the highest-ranked player in the ATP or WTA rankings is the first one to enter the draw, followed by the second highest-ranked player and so on (if more players withdrew before the start of the tournament). On rare occasions that there are more late withdrawals than losers in the last qualifying rounds or players eligible for lucky losers are not available, a player who lost in the penultimate round of qualifying may enter as lucky loser.

In this case, Sumit is 2nd choice after Austria Jurij Rodionov. Last year there were 2 LLs.