New York: Sumit Nagal clinched his maiden Grand Slam win in seven years when he destroyed American Bradley Klahn in the US Open first round. Returning to the Flushing Meadows where he took a set off Roger Federer, the 23-year-old got past the local competitor 6-1, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in two hours and twelve minutes on Tuesday (September 1).
The Indian will now face world no.3 Austrian Dominic Thiem, who secured a 7-6, 6-3 victory against Jaume Munar after the Spaniard retired with a knee injury he suffered in the second set.
Somdev Devvarman was the last Indian to win a main draw game at a major and incidentally it was during the 2013 US Open when he defeated Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko after coming through qualifiers. After Somdev, India witnessed some rising stars like Yuki Bhambri, Rajkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran but none of them could conquer a main draw round.
Nagal stated Indian tennis should have done better and partly accused it on the not-so-helpful ‘system’ as well. “In one way, yes (happy for Major win) but in another way, we could do so much better. We have so many people playing this sport, we have great talent but no system, which makes me feel sad,” he said. “It’s time to relax, but the feeling was definitely different when I was at the courts. It was kinda tensed,” the top-ranked Indian added.
