NAGAL REGISTERS BIGGEST WIN OF CAREER, BEATS WORLD NO.22

MUMBAI: Two Saturdays ago, Sumit Nagal crashed out in the first qualifying round of the ATP Cordoba Open after losing to 396th-ranked Argentine Facundo Diaz Acosta. It was Nagal’s first tournament back on his favoured clay courts since October last year. In February, he had lost in the Australian Open opener. A week after Cordoba, he was again made to sweat on the dirt of Buenos Aires, forced to dig out long, three-set wins in two of the three qualifiers.

On Wednesday, though, the 23-year-old Indian earned the biggest victory of his career thus far, defeating world No.22 and second seed Chilean Cristian Garin 6-4, 6-3 in the second round of the ATP 250 Argentina Open.

This was Nagal’s maiden win against a top-50 player; his previous best result was beating Martin Klizan, then No.56 in the world, at the ATP Bratislava Challenger in June 2019. Nagal will take on world No.46 Albert Ramos-vinolas in the quarter-finals on Friday, having beaten the Spaniard in the 2019 Lyon Challenger quarters.

“I felt like I needed this win,” Nagal said on Thursday. “It definitely means a lot. I am enjoying being on the court and I am happy with the amount of matches I am getting to play here.”

Sania bows out

DOHA: Sania Mirza’s first tournament in more than a year ended with a semi-final defeat as she was ousted from the Qatar Total Open along with her partner Andreja Klepac here on Thursday. Sania and her Slovenian partner lost 5-7, 6-2, 5-10 to America’s Nicole Melichar and Dutch player Demi Schuurs.