Sumit Nagal’s US Open campaign ends after losing birthday boy Dominic Thiem

New Delhi: India’s top-ranked men’s singles player Sumit Nagal crashed out of the US Open after losing to Austria’s Dominic Thiem. Nagal suffered a 3-6, 3-6, 2-6 loss to the second seed.

Nagal, who became the 1st Indian men’s singles player to win a Grand Slam main draw match in 7 years on Tuesday, put up a fighting effort against Thiem, showcasing glimpses of promise, especially when he hit some fine forehand winners.

Thiem started in confident fashion by taking a 3-0 lead, and while Nagal converted his fifth breakpoint at 1-3, the 23-year-old Indian’s depth of shot was ultimately exposed. From 3-3 in the first set, Thiem won five straight games as Nagal, competing with a great deal of self-belief, was consistently slow to move into the court for the short ball.

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Qualifies into the main draw last year. Makes it to Round 2 this year.

Sumit Nagal always leaves it all on the court.@NagalSumit I #USOpen pic.twitter.com/uyk054v3zl

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 3, 2020

Thiem said he was trying to play the fastest tennis in order to keep Nagal on his backhand as the youngster is “very dangerous” on his forehand.

“I was playing well today. I had a good plan for the match. He’s very dangerous when he can dictate with his forehand. I was exactly trying to avoid that. He also has very, very fast legs… I was trying to play my fastest tennis to keep him on the backhand, to not let him dictate with the forehand. I did that very well today,” Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) quoted Thiem as saying after the match.

“I think the only bad game he played was at 4-3 to me, in the first set, where he kind of came back into the match after he broke me, then he did some unforced errors. Besides that, I think it was a good match on a quite good level. I’m happy to be through in straight sets,” he added.

Earlier, Nagal defeated Bradley Klahn of USA 6-1, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the first round of the US Open to progress further into the tournament.

He became the first Indian to win a singles main draw match at a Grand Slam in the last seven years.

Thiem will now challenge the 2014 US Open champion Croatian Marin Cilic in the third round match on Saturday, September 5.