Why did Sumit Nagal retire midway from Argentina Open qualifying second round?  

Sumit Nagal's campaign in the Argentina Open ended heartbreakingly. In the second round of the qualifying stage against home favorite Juan Manuel Cerundolo, the Indian star retired midway, giving his Argentine opponent a walkover into the main draw of the tournament. Nagal called it quits, with the scorecard reading 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 0-1 after reportedly contracting a virus.

Cerundolo will next be up against his compatriot Roman Andres Burruchaga in the Round of 32. Nagal had to fight hard in the first round of the Qualifiers against Argentina’s Juan Pablo Ficovich. It took him three hours and 11 minutes to win the match 6-7 (4), 6-2, 7-6 (4). Against Cerundolo, Nagal fought two hours and 22 minutes before eventually giving up.

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Sumit Nagal goes down fighting in the Argentina Open

Nagal started his match against Cerundolo on a stupendous note, winning the first set. He converted one of the three break-point chances to come up trumps. Cerundolo, on the other hand, could not make use of any of the three breakpoint opportunities he got. The second set turned out to be a humdinger as it went into a tie-breaker after the two players earned a break each.

In the tie-breaker, Nagal took the initial lead to put his opponent under pressure. At 5-5, the set could have gone either way, but Cerundolo won two points on the trot to force a tie-breaker. After dropping his serve in the first game of the deciding set, Nagal asked for a medical timeout and decided to retire.

Nagal recently dropped out of the top 100 after crashing out of the Australian Open where he lost to the Czech Republic’s Tomas Machac in the first round. In the latest ATP rankings, Nagal dropped 24 places down to No. 129. Recently, he also couldn’t go beyond the pre-quarters of the Rosario Challenger.