India’s Sumit Nagal wins Tampere Open title

INDIA’S Sumit Nagal won his second ATP Challenger title of the year with a straight sets victory over fifth seed Dalibor Svrcina of the Czech Republic in the Tampere Open in Finland, last Sunday (23).

Nagal, seeded seventh in the event, defeated the fifth-seeded Svrcina 6-4, 7-5 in the final. This was Sumit Nagal’s fourth ATP Challenger title overall.

Last Sunday against Svrcina, Nagal went down an early break after losing serve in the second game to allow the Czech take a 3-0 lead.

The 25-year-old from Jhajjar in Haryana broke back his opponent’s serve to reduce the margin to 3-4 and then broke Svrcina’s serve again in the ninth game to take a 5-4 lead.

He came back from 0-30 down to hold his serve and won the 10th game and set at 6-4.

Nadal broke Svrcina’s serve in the first game of the second set and then repeated the act in the third game and held his serve in the next to take a 4-0 lead.

Svrcina was not done yet and broke back in the sixth game to make it 2-4. After Nagal held his serve to take a 5-3 lead, the Czech Republic player broke the Indian’s serve again to level the score at 5-5.

Nagal, however, could not be denied on Sunday and he broke immediately back in the 11th game and held his serve in the 12th which went to deuce twice before taking the game, set and match in 55 minutes.

Nagal is ranked 231 in the ATP chart while Svrcina is well above him on 193.

He had reached the final by beating Wild Card Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic 6-4, 6-1 in the first round and then got the better of Brazil’s Joao Lucas Reis Da Silva in a tough three-setter, winning 6-3, 6-7(2), 7-6(4). Nagal defeated Tunisia’s Aziz Dougaz 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals before sealing his place in the final with a comeback 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Spain’s Daniel Rincon.