NEW YORK: Sumit Nagal became the first Indian tennis player to win a round at a Grand Slam in seven years when he downed American Bradley Klahn in his US Open first round, setting up a contest against world number three Dominic Thiem, here.
Returning to the Flushing Meadows where he took a set off Roger Federer last year, the Indian got past the local rival, ranked just a rung above the Indian at 126th in the world, 6-1 6-3 3-6 6-1 in two hours and 12 minutes on Tuesday night.
Somdev Devvarman was the last Indian to win a main draw match at a major and incidentally, it was at the US Open in 2013 when he beat Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko after coming through qualifiers.
“I qualified for a junior Slam in 2013 here and then the men’s and now to win my first round here means a lot. I enjoy playing here and it has worked out in my favour few times,” Nagal told PTI.
“It was not easy to walk inside the court knowing this match is more in your favour. I was definitely nervous and especially playing for my first slam win but I did the things I was supposed to and kept my composure.” Somdev, who retired in January 2017, had reached the second rounds of Australian Open, French Open and US Open in 2013 apart from playing a second round at the Wimbledon in 2011 but never went beyond that.
After Somdev, Indian tennis saw the rise of Yuki Bhambri, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran but none of them could win a main draw round. Ramkumar did not even qualify for a main draw in many attempts. Saketh Myneni qualified for US Open singles in 2016 but lost to Czech Republic’s Jiri Vesely. Bhambri had to cope with injuries and that halted his progress. Between 2015 and 2018 he competed all four majors but never crossed a round.
Nagal said Indian tennis should have done better and partly blamed it on the not-so-helpful “system” as well. (PTI)
