Indian tennis star Sumit Nagal moved two spots up to secure his career-best ATP rank of 93. He got a surge in rankings after securing a spot in the main draw of the ongoing Monte-Carlo Masters campaign.
Notably, Sumit is India's best-ranked player in the latest ATP rankings. The second-best Indian in the tally is 29-year-old Ramkumar Ramanathan, who is positioned at the 349th spot with 145 points.
On April 7, Sunday, the Indian tennis sensation stole the spotlight after becoming the first Indian in 42 years to make it to the main draw of the Monte-Carlo Masters, an annual tennis competition held in France on clay courts.
Nagal secured a spot in the main draw of the clay court campaign after registering a win over 55th-ranked Facundo Diaz Acosta from Argentina in the second and final round of the qualifying draw with a scoreline of 7-5, 2-6, 6-2.
Earlier, he bagged a win over Italy’s Flavio Cobolli by 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the qualifiers. He would be taking on Italy's Matteo Arnaldi in the round of 64 at Court des Princes.
Sumit Nagal has been in impressive form
The 26-year-old Sumit has been in brilliant form this year since defeating Alexander Bublik in the first round of the Australian Open in January. Interestingly, Nagal made it to the main draw of AO after defeating G Blancaneaux (6-3, 7-5), E Winter (6-3, 6-2), and A Molcan (6-4, 6-4) in the qualifiers.
Unfortunately, he had to exit the tournament after losing to JC Shang in the second round with a scoreline of 6-2, 3-6, 5-7, 4-6.
He continued his good form in the recently concluded Chennai Open 2024, defeating Italy’s Luca Nardi 6-1, 6-4 to bag the men's singles title. It was after this win that he moved into the top 100 of the rankings. This was his fifth ATP Challenger Tour title of his career.
Earlier, he won Challenger Tour titles in Tampere and Rome in 2023, in Buenos Aires in 2019, and secured the Bengaluru Open title in 2017. Nagal will be aiming big in the upcoming French Open 2024, scheduled to begin on May 20.