Nagal beats Jung, reaches quarter-finals

Chennai, Feb 16: Sumit Nagal came from behind to beat Jason Jung of Chinese Taipei 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 to book his place in the quarter-finals and keep the Indian challenge alive in the singles event of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger tennis tournament here on Thursday.
Nagal, who came through the qualifying rounds, could not break the service of his 33-year old Taipei opponent, a lucky loser in the opening set.
Jung won a lot of points on his serve and never faced a break point while capturing the first set 6-3.
The 25-year old Indian raised his level of play and began to return well. He broke his opponent’s serve thrice in the second set while losing his own once to level the match.
In the third set, it was Nagal all the way as he landed 75 per cent of his first serves and returned superbly to win the decider without dropping a game.
Nagal, ranked 506 in the ATP rankings, will take on Great Britain’s Jay Clarke (313) in the quarter-finals.
Clarke defeated eighth-seed Dimitar Kuzmanov 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the next round.
Meanwhile, no.2 seed James Duckworth beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-2, 7-6 (3) to book his spot in the last eight. He was joined in the quarter-finals by compatriot Max Purcell, a 7-5, 6-3 winner over Petr Nouza of Czech Republic.
In the doubles, the top-seeded Indian duo of Jeevan Neduncheziyan and N Sriram Balaji beat compatriots Nagal and Sasikumar Mukund 7-6(5), 6-0 to sail into the semi-finals. (PTI)