Sumit Nagal crushes world No 27 Alexander Bublik to enter Australian Open 2024 second round

Sumit Nagal moved to the second round of the Australian Open 2024 after a stunning win over 31st seed Alexander Bublik in straight sets on Tuesday. The world No. 137 won 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (5) against Kazaksthan’s world No. 27 player. This is the first time since 1989 and in 35 years that an Indian men’s singles player has defeated a seeded player at a Grand Slam. The last to do so was Ramesh Krishnan against Mats Wilander at the Australian Open.

A HUGE win for Nagal 👏@nagalsumit defeats World No.27 Bublik 6-4 6-2 7-6 to make the second round!@AustralianOpen #AusOpen

pic.twitter.com/1WTwgWapey

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) January 16, 2024

It also happens to be the second time Nagal has managed to go past the first round of a Grand Slam. He reached the second round of the US Open 2020 after beating Bradley Klahn 6-1, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the first round but lost to Dominic Thiem in the next match. In the Tuesday match, Nagal and Bublik started were 1-1 at the start before the Indian raced to a 4-1 lead and closed out the set 6-4. He won the second set 6-2 and without much trouble. In the third set, Nagal had an opportunity to serve out the match at 5-4 but Bublik broke the Indian’s serve and took the match into the tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Nagal raced to a 6-3 lead and had two match points. Bublik then saved two points to stay alive before a double fault by the Kazakhstani cost him the match. Nagal is back in the Australian Open main draw after a gap of three years and it’s a stunning turnaround for a player who was ranked outside the top 500 at the start of 2023. In fact, in an interview in September, Nagal had revealed that he only had 900 euros (approximately Rs 80,000) in his bank account and was struggling to meet ends.