Sumit Nagal wins year’s second Challenger title in Finland

After three pandemic- and injury-hampered years without an ATP Challenger title, Sumit Nagal has captured two this season so far. The second, coming on Sunday after beating Czech Republic’s fifth-seeded Dalibor Svrcina 6-4, 7-5 in the final, gave the Indian the ATP Tampere Open Challenger crown on the clay courts of Finland.

The second, coming three months after his Rome Challenger triumph, it will also get the 25-year-old back into the top 200 of the ATP rankings and into the qualifying rounds of next month’s US Open. It’s a Slam in which he entered the second round in 2020, losing to eventual champion Dominic Thiem.

No Indian men’s singles player has got into the qualifying rounds of this season’s Grand Slams, where Nagal was the last Indian face in the singles main draw at the 2021 Australian Open.

“Finally, made it to a Slam. It’s been a while,” Nagal said from Tampere. “I will look to play a few more tournaments before heading to the US. I know I can finish the year very well.”

Currently ranked 231, Nagal — he reached a career-high ranking of 122 in 2020 — is expected to rise into the 170s in the ATP rankings with 75 points in the bag from the Finnish city. From starting the season ranked outside 500 and seeking out support for wildcards to merely get into qualifying rounds of Challengers, Nagal is happy to find himself back into the top 200 and winning Challengers.

“Every ranking milestone matters to me,” Nagal said. “Starting the year outside 500, not even able to get into qualifying of a Challenger in Thailand… I remember asking AITA (All India Tennis Association) to help me and it was nice of them to get me a wildcard there (in Nonthaburi in January). So yes, this feels good. But I’m not satisfied. I’m hungry.”

Nagal has taken steady strides this season after a challenging return to professional tennis from a hip surgery in late 2021. The semi-final show from the qualifying rounds at the home Chennai Challenger in February provided positive signs, which led to Nagal winning his first Challenger title since 2019 in Rome in April.

In Tampere coming off a couple of early exits, Nagal beat Jiri Vesely — the former world No.35 took a set off Stefanos Tsitsipas at this French Open — in the opening round. He came back from a set down in the semi-final against Spaniard Daniel Rincon, the 2021 US Open junior champion, and took that momentum into the final against the 193rd-ranked Svrcina for his career’s fourth Challenger trophy.

“I’m getting better and better on the court, getting more mature,” Nagal said of his post-surgery comeback path. “In 2019, I played a whole season with a comfortable schedule where I got into many tournaments. This year, I started pretty late but right now I feel like I’m on the right track. Let’s see where I finish this year.”