Indian star Sumit Nagal went past France’s Geoffrey Blancaneaux in the Australian Open 2024 qualifiers on Wednesday (Jan 10) to advance in his quest to make it to the main draw of the upcoming Grand Slam Down Under. Nagal defeated the Frenchman 6-3, 7-5 in a match that lasted nearly two hours (1 hour and 46 minutes). Nagal will now gear up to face Australia’s Edward Winter in his next encounter.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Talking about the first set, Nagal started on an impressive note. He looked good from the word go and, hence, took a 4-1 lead. There was some late fightback from his opposition but it wasn’t enough as the 26-year-old Indian star clinched the opening set without dropping much sweat. In the second set, the contest was more evenly-fought which saw the scoreline reading 5-5. It seemed that the second and penultimate set would stretch to the tiebreaker before Nagal ended the match with a 7-5 lead.
Nagal, who remains the only Indian to win a set over Swiss maestro Roger Federer when he achieved the rare feat during the 2019 US Open, will now face Winter in the next round of the qualifiers. The youngster, who ranks 122nd in the world, played in the main draw of the Australian Open in 2021. Back then, he lost 2-6, 5-7, 3- to Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania in the opening round. He would like to reach the main draw this time around as well and try to go beyond the first round. His best-ever performance was when he reached the second round of the US Open in 2020. He will certainly aim to better that run in Melbourne during 2024’s maiden Grand Slam event.
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