Meet the 22-year-old Indian tennis player who faced Roger Federer in his US Open debut
Sumit Nagal may have lost the match to Roger Federer, but the boy from Jhajjar has come a long way and is now training at Nensel Academy in Germany.
Every sport has an athlete whom the world regards as god. Cricket has Sachin Tendulkar, golf has Tiger Woods, while football has Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo. When it comes to tennis, there can be none other than Roger Federer, the 20-time Grand Slam winner.
Playing against or with them is every sportsperson’s dream, and 22-year-old Sumit Nagal was one of the lucky few whose dream turned into reality. He faced Roger Federer on his Grand Slam debut in the first round of the US Open. And his performance against the renowned player took everyone by surprise.
The Indian tennis player won the first set 6-4. However, the Swiss player soon bounced back with 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 to win the match.
Despite his loss, Sumit became the fifth Indian to feature in the Grand Slam singles, according to First Post.
However, the journey to USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center wasn’t an easy one for the young athlete. It all began when Sumit, hailing from Jhajjar, when he was only eight years old. However, back then, he was in love with India’s most loved sport: cricket.
Things changed when his father took him to a local sports club. The eight-year-old was amazed by the tennis court.
Speaking to ATP Tour, he said,
“The first day, I played a member of the club and put one ball in the court. I was so happy. After 40 minutes, I put one ball in, and I was like 'yeah dad!' In six months, I got better and better after so many hours. My father believed in hours over talent. When you're eight, it's pretty late to start tennis.”
Two years later, renowned India player Mahesh Bhupathi was holding a selection for his academy. On hearing of the opportunity, Sumit went all the way to New Delhi for the trials.
"I was hitting with the other kids and there was a moment where I went to Mahesh and said, 'Mr Bhupathi, could you please look at my game?'. I knew who he was, so I grabbed his hand and asked him to look at my game. After that is apparently when he told my family that they're going to take me,” reports ATP Tour.
That was the moment where everything changed for Sumit. He was among the three students selected out of thousands of entries, and went on to train under the Indian tennis star until 2012.
Later, Sumit went to Canada and three years later moved to Germany. He trained under Mariano Delfino from 2014 to 2018 at the Schüttler Waske Tennis-University. Now, Sumit is training at Nensel Academy in Germany under head coach Sascha Nensel, reports FirstPost.
He also won the Wimbledon Boys Doubles title by beating Reilly Opelka and Akira Santilla with his Vietnamese partner Ly Hoang Nam.
Remembering the day that changed his life, he said,
”That's the one line that changed my life. If I didn't tell him this, I would not be sitting here right now. My family didn't have enough money to support me when I was young. I couldn't have played tennis. If I didn't show guts and go up to him, I tell you I wouldn't be here in New York today. I'm 100 percent sure. I'm very proud that I did it at that age.”
(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)
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