Sumit Nagal staged a late fightback but it was not enough to prevent him from going down to Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands in the first round of the men’s singles at the US Open on Monday.
The 27-year-old Indian tennis ace, competing in his fourth Grand Slam this year, was beaten 1-6, 3-6, 6-7(6-8) late in the day at Flushing Meadows, New York.
He was outplayed in the first set, but put up a better show in the second where the scores went with serve till Griekspoor broke in the fifth game to go 3-2 up and proceed to take the second set.
The Indian gave a better account of himself in the third, which went on similar lines, as both players held serve till 5-5.
Nagal had break-point at 40-30 in the 11th game but fluffed the chance. After deuce was called again, he had another break and converted it to go 6-5 up and serve for the set.
However, Griekspoor broke back at love to win the 12th game and take the set to the tie-breaker.
In the tie-break, Nagal served well and was up 6-4, but the Dutchman levelled the score at 6 and took the next two points to emerge triumphant at 8-6 and advance to the second round.
This was the third time that Nagal made it to the main draw at Flushing Meadows, after 2019 and 2020. He also played in the qualifiers in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
He is the first Indian man since 2019 to play in the main draw of all the Grand Slams in a calendar year. The last to do so was Prajnesh Gunneswaran in 2019 and Yuki Bhambri in 2018.
Nagal created history at the Australian Open earlier this year, shocking world No. 27 Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) in the first round and becoming the first Indian men's player in more than three decades to beat a seeded player at a Grand Slam.
He lost in the first round at the French Open to big-hitting Russian Karen Khachanov 2-6, 0-6, 6-7(5) and at Wimbledon to Serbia's world No 53 Miomir Kecmanovic 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6.
