Melbourne: India's Sumit Nagal notched up a historic victory over World No.27 Alexander Bublik in his first round of the Australian Open here on Tuesday.
Nagal, world No. 137, overpowered the Kazakh 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 in two hours and 38 minutes.
It was a historic feat as he became the first Indian player to overwhelm a seeded player in a Grand Slam since 1989.
Ramesh Krishnan was the last Indian to do so, but he did it in the second round by ousting defending champion Mats Willander in the 1989 Australian Open.
The top-ranked Indian singles player had defeated Slovakia’s Alex Molcan to reach the main draw of a Major for the fourth time in his career.
Nagal, who recovered from a series of injuries, looked good in his qualifying campaign, not losing a single set across his three matches. A couple of double faults from Bublik on his serve proved costly as Nagal capitalised on it and broke the Kazakh in the first game of the first set.
Nevertheless, Bublik came back strongly to equalize.
However, Nagal restored the advantage by breaking Bublik for the third time in a row and held his service games to take the first set.
An elated Nagal sprung a surprise by breaking Bublik in the first game of the second set as well. He repeated the same magic in the fifth game and secured the second set.
For a change, Bublik held his first serve of the match in the third set. Nagal broke the Kazakh in the seventh game, but could not maintain the pressure and allowed his opponent to spring back at 5-all.
Bublik then held his service game, but Nagal led 3-0 in the tie-breaker and had three matchpoint opportunities. Bublik saved two, but the Indian star remained cool and made most of his third opportunity.
Earlier, Nagal overcame three qualifying rounds to secure his place in the main draw of the Australian Open 2024.
Nagal will lock horns with the winner of Mackenzie McDonald and Shang Juncheng up next in the second round.
