Sumit Nagal fell just short of clinching back-to-back titles on the ATP Challenger Tour as he lost 6-1, 6-2 in 62 minutes to World No. 41 Luciano Darderi in the final in Perugia on Sunday.
Nagal was playing his 10th match in the last 12 days, including his run in Heilbronn, Germany, where he won the sixth Challenger title of his career. The victory in Germany helped the Indian move up to a new career-high of 77 in the ATP Rankings, likely securing him a spot in men’s singles at Paris Olympics.
The 26-year-old Indian seemed to be reeling from a tough three-set semifinal against Spain’s Bernabe Zapata Miralles as he started slowly against top-seeded Italian Darderi, a much fresher opponent. Dardieri broke Nagal thrice to take the opening set in 27 minutes.
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Nagal stopped the 22-year-old Italian’s run of eight straight games as he broke back to bring things back on serve at 1-2 in the second set.
However, Darderi restored his advantage, breaking Nagal in the sixth game, to take a 4-2 lead. The Italian broke the Indian for the sixth time while he was serving to stay in the match.
Despite the defeat, Nagal has risen up to 71 in the live ATP Rankings, which takes him past Leander Paes (career-high of 73) in joint-fourth place on the all-time list of highest-ranked Indian men since the introduction of the computerised rankings in 1973. Nagal is tied with Sashi Menon and only behind Somdev Devvarman (62), Ramesh Krishnan (23) and Vijay Amritraj (18).
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