ATP Nordea Open: Sumit Nagal bows out, misses potential clash with Nadal

Sumit Nagal exited the Nordea Open after he lost to fourth-seed Mariano Navone from Argentina in straight sets on Thursday in Bastad, Sweden.

Nagal had beaten local lad Elias Ymer in the Round of 32 match in straight sets.

The WR 68 started off well in the Round of 16 match after Nagal won the first two games, which included him breaking the Argentine’s serve. However, Navone caught up quickly.

The Argentinian player won five consecutive games before Nagal broke Navone’s serve once again to bring the set score to 3-5. Despite attempting to come back into the game, Nagal conceded the first set 4-6.

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By the start of the second set, Navone was on song while Nagal was showing signs of slowing down. In the eighth game, the Indian was putting up a good fight to save two match points, but eventually, Navone wrapped up the match with ease, ending the second set with a score of 6-2.

Nagal, with this loss, missed out on a potential quarterfinals match against Rafael Nadal, who is slated to face fifth-seed Cameron Norrie later in the day.

He remains as the last Indian man to make the quarterfinals of an ATP tournament, when he did so at the ATP 250 Buenos Aires in 2021.

In the Swiss Open, duo Yuki Bhambri and Albano Olivetti defeated Denys Molchanov/Matwe Middelkoop in the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles in straight sets.