India’s top player Sumit Nagal crashed out of the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the season, after suffering a straight-set defeat against Dutch player Tallon Griekspoor in the opening round here.
Nagal struggled with his first serve, winning only 61 percent of those points to lose 1-6, 3-6, 6-7(8) to Griekspoor, who won 87 percent of his first serve points, on Monday night.
Nagal broke his rival twice while the Dutchman converted six of his 11 break chances in the two hour and 20-minute contest.
The 27-year-old from Jhajjar found his rhythm quite late as he kept spraying unforced errors. Several times the Dutchman found easy winners by catching the Indian wrong footed.
Light rain stopped play in the second set when Nagal was trailing 3-5. He competed well after resumption. He still is alive in US Open as he is competing in the men’s doubles as well.
Nagal had begun the season with a bang, making it to the Australian Open main draw from the qualifiers and kept improving his ranking that secured his passage into all four Grand Slams main draws.
While he won a main draw round in Melbourne, in the following Majors, he fell at the first hurdle. Nevertheless, by playing all Grand Slams of the season 2024, he did his career a world of good.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran was the last Indian to play all Grand Slam singles main draw in 2019.
In the men’s doubles, India will have Rohan Bopanna, Yuki Bhambri, N Sriram Balaji and Nagal playing with different partners.
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