Melbourne: Indian tennis star Sumit Nagal entered the second round of the Australian Open for the first time in his career by defeating world number 27 Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan in straight sets here on Tuesday.
26-year-old Nagal, who made it to the main draw through the qualifiers, defeated 31st seed Bublik 6-4, 6-2, 7-6(7-5) in a tough match that lasted two hours and 38 minutes.
This would be Nagal’s first progress into the second round of the Australian Open. In 2021, he lost to Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis 2-6, 5-7, 3-6 in the opening round.
The world number 139 Indian player will play in the second round of a Grand Slam event for the second time in his career.
At the 2020 US Open, Nagal lost to second seed and eventual champion Dominic Thiem 6–3, 6–3, 6–2 in the second round.
Nagal’s win on Tuesday was the first time in 35 years that an Indian defeated a seeded player in a Grand Slam.
The last time this happened was in 1989 when Ramesh Krishnan won over then world number one and defending champion Mats Wilander at the Australian Open.
Nagal made a great start and broke Bublik in the first game of the match, but after that he failed to hold his serve and the score became 1-1.
After this, the Indian player broke his opponent’s serve twice in the first set and won 6-4 in 42 minutes.
Nagal played even better in the second set and broke his opponent twice while holding his own to win 6-2 in 43 minutes.
In the third set, both players held serve until the seventh game, when Nagal broke his opponent to lead 4–3. After this he went ahead 5-3.
After this the Indian player served for the match at 5-4, but failed to hold. The third set then went to a tie-breaker which Nagal eventually won 7-5.
