Sumit Nagal suffers a defeat in qualifying round, bows out of Cincinnati Masters
Ace Indian tennis player Sumit Nagal, who had a poor outing in the Paris Olympics 2024, suffered a defeat in the qualifying round of the Cincinnati Masters on his debut to bow out of the competition.
Sumit Nagal took on USA's Mackenzie McDonald, World No. 119 in the ATP Rankings in the first round of the qualifying draw. Unfortunately, he couldn't create an impact as he suffered a two-set defeat by 2-6, 4-6 to make an early exit from the campaign.
Notably, Cincinnati Masters is one of the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments on the ATP Tour. Making a switch from clay at the Paris Olympics to hard surface at the Cincinnati Masters turned out to be a tough challenge for Sumit Nagal.
Earlier in the Paris Olympics 2024, Sumit Nagal suffered a hard-fought three-set loss to Corentin Moutet of France in the first round by 2-6, 6-2, 5-7 in the match that lasted two hours and 28 minutes.
Before the Summer Games, Nagal took part in the Austrian Open in July, suffering a defeat in Round of 32 to Lukas Klein of Slovakia. He competed in three other tournaments in July in the lead-up to the Games in Paris.
At Wimbledon, he exited the first round in the men's doubles and men's singles. Later in the Challenger Braunschweig, he moved to the Round of 32 but had to exit after suffering a two-set defeat. Subsequently in the Swedish Open, he got eliminated from Round of 32.
Sumit Nagal had a decent start in 2024
Nagal started off the 2024 season with a win against Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan at the Australian Open, stealing the headlines. Later, he secured another title at the Chennai Open to make it to the top 100 in the ATP rankings for the first time.
Subsequently, he emerged as the first-ever Indian male player to make the cut to the main draw at the Monte Carlo Masters. Additionally, he made the cut to the French Open and Wimbledon.
Also, he secured the men’s singles title at the Heilbronn Neckar Cup 2024 Challenger competition in Germany in June. Nagal, who holds the World No. 74 rank in the current ATP Rankings, has secured four ATP Challenge titles since 2023.