London, June 28: India’s top singles player Sumit Nagal is set to make his maiden appearance in the men’s singles main draw of the Wimbledon and he will be up against higher-ranked Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia in the first round here.
However, World No. 72 Nagal has a tough road ahead as he is placed in the same section of the draw as top seed and World No. 1 Jannik Sinner and could face the Italian in the third round if he makes it that far. Even crossing the first hurdle will not be easy for Nagal as he is pitted against world No. 53 Kecmanovic. The Serbian had beaten Nagal in their lone match so far at the ATP 250 event in Cologne, Germany, four years ago.
If Nagal gets past the opening round, he will be up against the winner of the opening round match between Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta, ranked 796 in the world, and world No. 26 Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands.
Olympic-bound Nagal had earlier lost in the first round of men’s singles qualifiers against Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak in 2018.
Nagal is having a dream season so far as he had also qualified for the main draw of the Australian Open earlier this year. He stunned 31st-seeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan in the opening round to become the first Indian male tennis player to beat a seeded player in 35 years in a Slam.
The Indian then went on to win the Chennai Open ATP Challenger to enter top-100 in the rankings.
Meanwhile in men’s doubles, veteran Indian Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden, seeded second, will take on French pair Adrian Mannarino and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round.
Bopanna and Ebden, the reigning Australian Open champions, had reached the semifinals of last year’s Wimbledon.
Another Indian N Sriram Balaji, who will be Bopanna’s doubles partner at Paris Olympics, and his British partner Luke Johnson will play fourth-seeded Croatian-Salvadorian combination of Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arevalo, who won this year’s French Open.
Yuki Bhambri and his French partner Albano Olivetti will meet Kazakh duo of Bublik and Alexander Shevchenko, while Nagal and Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic will take on Spain’s Pedro Martinez and Jaume Munar in the opening round. (PTI)
