Chennai, Feb 12:
India’s Sumit Nagal annexed the singles title in the Chennai Open ATP Challenger 100 Men’s International Tennis Championship-2024 and became the second Indian to make to the top 100 in the ATP World Ranking.
In the final at the SDAT Tennis Stadium here on Sunday evening, Nagal, seeded second vanquished top seed Luca Nardi or Italy 6-1, 6-4 in straight sets to clinch his 5th ATP Challenger Tour title and the first of this season.
With this win, Nagal, who is at present ranked 121 in the ATP rankings, became the first Indian since Prajnesh Guneswaran in 2019 to make it to the Top 100 ATP World Ranking.
Nagal’s ranking will now improve to 98 in the new list that would be announced by ATP on Monday.
With this win, Sumit Nagal became the first Indian to win a Men’s Singles event at the Chennai Open ATP level event here after three others – Leander Paes in 1996, Somdev Devvarman in 2009 and Yuki Bhambri in 2018 – faltered at the final hurdle.
In addition, the Chennai Open Champion gained 100 ATP points and $ 18,230 equivalent of Rs.15.13 lakh propelling him into the top 100 ranking in the world. Luca Nardi received US Dollar 10730 equivalent of Rs.8.90 lakhs and 60 ATP points.
It was special moment for 26-year-old Sumit to achieve this goal in Chennai hailed as the mecca of Indian Tennis, and the in presence of his mentor Somdev Devvarman who was also a top 100 player.
Playing in front of an enthusiastic 2,000 strong crowd, Nagal easily won the first set 6-1 and gained an early break to lead 3-1 in the second.
From here on, 20-year-old Nardi put up a solid fight and broke back to level at3-3. Three more breaks ensured before Nagal served out the match and won 6-1, 6-4 in one hour and 37 minutes.
With the win, Nagal will break into the top 100 in the world for the first time on Monday after having been ranked outside the top 500 at the start of the 2023 season.
This is 26-year-old Nagal’s fifth career ATP Challenger singles title and his second on Indian soil, more than six years after he won the Bengaluru Open Challenger in 2017.
Dr. Atulya Misra, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports Development, Government of Tamil Nadu, gave away the winner’s trophy and Mr J. Meghanatha Reddy, Member Secretary Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu gave away the runner up trophy in presence of Vijay Amritraj, President Tamil Nadu Tennis Association.
On Saturday night, the Indian duo of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni clinched the doubles title, defeating Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha/ Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli in a three-set all Indian contest.
The Chennai Open is the first in a series of ATP Challenger 100 events to be held in India. The tournaments to follow are scheduled to be held at Bengaluru, Pune, and Delhi.
