India's Sumit Nagal goes down fighting in Tata Open Maharashtra

:- Abhijit Deshmukh

Indian second ranked singles player Sumit Nagal bowed out of Tata Open Maharashtra after a hard fought battle against former world no. 12 Viktor Troicki of Serbia. Nagal lost 2-6,7-6, 6-1 in two hours twenty-minute battle played at Pune’s balewadi tennis complex. 

Nagal received loud cheer when he walked onto the centre court but his opponent Troicki had some other plans. The Serbian took stance deep down the baseline and returned nagal’s serve with ease, hitting some return ace. The Indian serve was broken in the first game. Nagal made several unforced errors and was broken again in seventh game. In just 35 minutes the Serbian won first set 6-2. 

The Indian made strong comeback in second set and played aggressive tennis. The match had long rallies with nagal bringing crowd to feats producing great winners. In 12th game he had two set poinlts but couldn't break troicki serve as the set went into tie-break. Troicki saved two set points in tie-break but couldn't save third. With a strong forehand down the line, Nagal won the second set 7-6 to level the match. In third set, Nagal lost the momentum after one call was ruled out against him in the third game. Trociki broke nagal's serve thrice to clinch the final set in just 20 minutes, moving into second round.