Bengaluru : On a day of upsets, wildcard Sumit Nagal took the first step towards defending his title when in a rematch of last year’s final, ousted seventh seed Jay Clarke in the opening round of the $150,000 Bengaluru Open ATP Challenger at the KSLTA here on Monday.
The 21-year-old took just about two hours to register a straight set 6-4, 7-5 victory amidst loud cheers from stands.
“I am happy to begin with a win. As I said earlier, I did not expect anything from the match and will take one match at a time,” said the victor.
In another upset, Turkey’s Cem Ilkel outlasted second seed Marco Trungelliti of Argentina in 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3) in over two and a quarter hours. The only other seed to play on Monday – fifth seed Marc Polmans of Australia was stretched by his countrymate Maverick Banes before overcoming 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.
In the match played on centre court, it seemed as if defending champion Sumit Nagal took off from where he had left about a year ago. The match between Sumit and Clarke promised fireworks from the word go with both the players trading shots in a fast-paced game.
Sumit, in particular was visibly aggressive in his approach. After both the players had held their respective serves for the first eight games, Sumit broke Clarke’s serve in the ninth to go 5-4 up and served out for the set.
Maintaining the same tempo in the second set, Sumit put his forehand to good use and virtually had Clarke on the wrong foot on many occasions and earned an early break. However, he could not maintain the tempo, losing the advantage, thanks to some unforced errors.
Parity was restored in the sixth game. Both players then held on to their serves until Sumit broke the Englishman in the 11th game and held his serve in the next to win the match.
Results:
Men: 5- Marc Polmans (Aus) bt Maverick Banes (Aus) 1-6, 6-4, 6-2; W-Sumit Nagal bt 7-Jay Clarke 6-4, 7-5; Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Kaz) bt Scot Griekspoor (Ned) 6-3, 6-2; Cem Ilkel (Tur) bt 2-Marco Trungelliti (Arg) 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3); Tsung-Hua Yang (Tpe) Vs. James Ward (Gbr).