NEW DELHI, April 15: Indian tennis star Sumit Nagal has achieved a new career-high men’s singles ranking of 80 in the latest ATP Rankings released on Monday on the back of a solid performance in the Monte Carlo Masters.
Meanwhile, Rohan Bopanna lost the No.1 spot in the men’s doubles ranking to his Australian partner, Matthew Ebden, after the duo was eliminated in the Round of 16 of the Monte Carlo Masters.
Nagal reached the Monte Carlo Masters draw after beating Italy’s Flavio Cobolli and Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta. Nagal was only the third Indian to compete in the main draw of the Masters event on clay after Vijay Amritraj (1977) and Ramesh Krishnan (1982).
In the opening round of the Monte Carlo Masters, he defeated World No. 38 Matteo Arnald of Italy to become the first Indian to win an ATP Masters 1000 match on clay since the series’ inception in 1990.
However, Nagal lost to seventh-seeded and 2023 runner-up Holger Rune in the second round. As a result of his performance, Nagal rose 13 spots in the ATP Rankings.
He is also the seventh highest-ranked Indian in men’s singles after Vijay Amritraj (whose career-high ranking was 18 in 1980), Ramesh Krishnan (whose career-high was 23 in 1985).
Somdev Devvarman (whose career-high was 62 in 2011), Sashi Menon (whose career-high was 71 in 1975), Anand Amritraj (whose career-high was 74 in 1974), and Prajnesh Gunneswaran (whose career-high of 75 in 2019). (IANS)
