India’s top-ranked player Sumit Nagal booked his spot in the main draw of Monte Carlo Masters with a hard-fought win over Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta in the final qualifying round on Sunday.
The unseeded 95th-ranked Indian followed his 6-2, 6-3 win over eighth seed and World No. 63 Flavio Cobolli of Italy in the first round with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 victory over third-seeded Diaz Acosta in two hours 25 minutes.
Nagal was down 2-5 in the opening set against 55th-ranked Diaz Acosta before he reeled off five straight games.
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The 23-year-old Diaz Acosta, who won the Argentina Open in February, bounced back to clinch the second set.
Nagal broke the Argentine’s serve in the first and fifth game of the decider to take a 5-1 lead. Serving for the win at 5-2, the 26-year-old Indian wasted two match points before finally converting the third one.
Nagal is set to become the first Indian to feature in the main draw of the ATP event in Monaco since Ramesh Krishnan in 1982. He will face Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi, World No. 35, in the opening round with the winner set to take on seventh-seeded Dane Holger Rune, last year’s runner-up.
“I’m competing well. Physically, I’m getting better and better. Those two are the biggest changes from the last few years,” said Nagal after the win.
Nagal is set to appear in an ATP Masters 1000 event for the second time in what has been a major season in his career. He got into the main draw in Indian Wells as a lucky loser after Rafael Nadal pulled.
Nagal began the season by qualifying for the main draw of the Australian Open where he shocked 31st-seeded Kazakh Alexander Bublik in the opening round.
He then won the Chennai Open ATP Challenger to make his Top 100 debut in the ATP Rankings.
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