Sumit Nagal was born on 16 August 1997 to school teacher Suresh Nagal and his wife Krishna Devi, a homemaker in Jhajjar, Haryana. [3] Nagal started playing tennis at the age of eight at a local sports club.
When he was ten years old, he was selected to join Mahesh Bhupathi's training academy, as part of the first batch of Mahesh Bhupathi's Apollo Tyres Mission 2008 programme. As part of the programme, between 2008 and 2010, Nagal was based in Bengaluru. Upon the programme closing down, Nagal moved to Toronto for training with Coach Bobby Mahal until 2014. [4]
He played for Gujarat Panthers in Tennis Premier League Season 5. [5]
Career
2015: Junior Wimbledon title
Nagal won his 1st ever ITF Futures title by defeating Gustavo Vellbach 6–2, 6–0 at India F8 tournament. Nagal then won India F11 by defeating compatriot Ronit Singh Bisht 6–3, 6–4. Nagal won the 2015 Wimbledon boys' doubles title with his Vietnamese partner Lý Hoàng Nam, defeating Reilly Opelka and Akira Santillan in the final. He became the sixth Indian player to win a junior Grand Slam title. [6] Nagal won his 1st ever ITF futures doubles title with Vijay Sundar Prashanth by defeating compatriots Anirudh Chandrasekar and Vignesh Peranamallur 6–3, 7–5, he also won the singles in the same tournament by defeating Vishnu Vardhan 7–6(7-5), 7–6(7-4).
2016: Davis Cup debut
Nagal won Uzbekistan F1 with Ti Chen by defeating Sanjar Fayziev and Jurabek Karimov 5–5 ret. He won Poland F6 by defeating Daniel Masur 6–4, 1–6, 6–3. Nagal made his Davis Cup debut for India in the 2016 World Group Playoff tie against Spain in New Delhi. [7] He then won Hungary F7 by defeating Peter Nagy 7–6(7–3), 6–1.
2017: First ATP Challenger title
Nagal ran into a controversy when he was dropped from Davis Cup team for serious disciplinary issues. [8]
Nagal lost the final of Romania F2 to Gonçalo Oliveira 6–3, 3–6, 0–6. He then won Sri Lanka F1 by defeating Alexandr Zhurbin 6–3, 6-2 and Sri Lanka F3 by defeating Carlos Bolunda-Purkiss 6–1, 6–1. He continued his good form by winning Italy F23 against Andrea Basso 6–4, 6–4. Nagal then defeated Colin Van Beem by 6–3, 6–0 in the final of India F7.
Nagal won gold medal at Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games by defeating compatriot Vijay Natrajan 6–1,6-1 in the final. He didn't drop a single set in the whole championship. [9]
At Bengaluru Challenger Nagal stunned top seed Blaž Kavčič in the quarterfinals, then followed it by beating compatriot Yuki Bhambri in the semifinal and Jay Clarke in the Finals capturing his first challenger title. [10]
2019: Grand Slam tournament debut
2019 proved to be breakthrough year for Nagal. At the 2019 US Open, Nagal qualified to make his grand slam main draw debut. He faced Roger Federer in his opening round match. [11] He lost the match but managed to take first set against the multiple grand slam champion. [12] Later he reached his second career ATP challenger final at the Banja Luka Challenger. He lost the championship match to Dutch player Tallon Griekspoor. [13] The next tournament he reached the final again at Buenos Aires Challenger. [14] He won the title defeating local player Facundo Bagnis. This was his second challenger title and his first on clay. [15]
2022: Injuries
Nagal reached the only quarterfinal of his year in the Meerbusch. Outside of that, he only won 4 matches at Challenger level.
2023: Top 150, first top 100 win
Nagal began the season at Maharastra Open entering the main draw as wildcard. He lost to sixth seed Filip Krajinović in three sets in first round. He next lost to Shintaro Mochizuki in three sets in first qualifying round of the Nonthaburi Challenger. He then lost to Gauthier Onclin in three sets in first qualifying round of the 2023 BW Open ending the first month of the year winless.
In February, Nagal reached his first challenger semifinal since Sibiu 2021 in Chennai after coming through qualifying, beating Calum Puttergill and Nam Ji-sung. In the main draw, he beat 4th seed Ryan Peniston, lucky loser Jason Jung, and unseeded Jay Clarke, before losing to Nicolas Moreno de Alboran in the semifinals.
Nagal qualified for the Garden Open in Rome. Once he reached the main draw, he beat 4th seed Francesco Maestrelli, wildcard Fausto Tabacco, alternate Max Houkes and 8th seed Joris de Loore to reach his first Challenger final in 4 years. There, he beat Jesper de Jong in straight sets to win the title, becoming the first Indian player to win a Challenger title on European clay. As a result, he reentered the top 260 on 8 May 2023.
In July, Nagal was seeded 7th in the Tampere Challenger in Finland. There, he beat Jiří Veselý, João Lucas Reis da Silva and Aziz Dougaz to reach the semifinals, where he beat Daniel Rincón to reach the second Challenger final of his year. There, he beat 4th seed Dalibor Svrčina to win his second Challenger title of the year, becoming the first Indian player to win two titles on European Clay in the same year. As a result, his ranking returned to the top 200 at 173 after the tournament.
His success continued on clay, after reaching yet another semifinal in Tulln, defeating Albert Ramos-Viñolas for his first victory over a top 100 player on his way. In the semifinals, he defeated Flavio Cobolli to reach the third final of his year. He lost to Vít Kopřiva in straight sets.
As an alternate in Helsinki, Nagal reached another challenger quarterfinal, his first on hard courts of the year, after beating Dennis Novak and Jakub Menšík. He advanced to the semifinals after second seed Emil Ruusuvuori retired midway through their match. In the semifinals, he defeated lucky loser Stefano Travaglia to reach his fourth Challenger final of the year. He lost in the final in three sets to Corentin Moutet. As a result, his ranking returned to the top 150 at No. 141 after the tournament.
2024: First Australian Open win
Having been denied a wildcard to the 2024 Australian Open by the AITA for not participating in the Davis Cup, he qualified making his second appearance in the main draw at this Major after three years of absence. [23] He upset 31st seed Alexander Bublik in straight sets, [24] and became the first Indian tennis player to defeat a seeded player in the singles main draw of a Grand Slam since Ramesh Krishnan who beat then World No. 1 and defending champion Mats Wilander at the 1989 Australian Open. [25] [26] [27] Later, in the second round, he lost against wildcard Shang Juncheng. [28]
On 12 February 2024, having been ranked 506th in the world roughly a year prior, Nagal made his top 100 debut becoming just the tenth Indian to reach the Top 100. [29] He reached the milestone by defeating Luca Nardi in the final of the Challenger in Chennai. [30] [31]
He entered the main draw 2024 BNP Paribas Open as a lucky loser on his Masters debut, replacing Rafael Nadal, [32] making him the first Indian at a Masters 1000 event since Prajnesh Gunneswaran in Miami in 2019. [33] He lost to Milos Raonic in straight sets. [34]
He qualified for his next Masters in Monte Carlo becoming the first Indian singles player in 42 years to make it to the main draw at this tournament. [35] He defeated Italian Matteo Arnaldi in his opening match, becoming the first Indian male player to win a Masters 1000 match on clay. It was also his first Masters 1000 win. [36] [37]
He reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 71 on 17 June 2024, [38] having won the 2024 Heilbronner Neckarcup [39] on June 10 and reached another Challenger final in Perugia the following week. [40]
India
