Nagal won ATP Challenger Tour title after four years

Rome Indian tennis player Sumit Nagal on Sunday won his first ATP Challenger Tour title in nearly four years in Rome. Nagal, ranked 347 in the world, defeated Jesper de Jong of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-2 in the final to claim the third title of his career. He won his first title in 2017 in Bengaluru, while the last time he lifted the winner’s trophy was in 2019 in Buenos Aires. Nagal had to go through the qualification round to play in this event, but he showed his skills to beat De Jong, ranked 100 places above him, in just one hour and 42 minutes.

Jhajjar’s Nagal is the first Indian to win a Challenger Tour title in Europe. Before Nagal, only Ramkumar Ramanathan has won the Challenger Tour title for India in America (Miami, 2021). Nagal, who trains under former India number one Somdev Devvarman, was ruled out of the game for five months at the end of 2021 due to a hip injury. His rank had dropped to 638 by October last year due to a prolonged absence.

He has, however, played nine Challenger tournaments this year and reached at least the second round in four, putting him on the verge of re-entering the top 300 of the live ATP rankings.