US Open: Sumit Nagal Becomes 1st Indian in 7 Years to Win a Grand Slam Main Draw Match

India?s top-ranked singles player Sumit Nagal made it to the second round of the US Open, on Tuesday, in his second main draw as he defeated local Bradley Klahn in four sets.

With the win, Nagal become the first Indian in seven years to win a main draw match at a Grand Slam event. The last Indian to do so was Somdev Devvarman at 2013 US Open.

Nagal, who made his main draw debut last year against Roger Federer, went up against a player ranked lower than him and made the best of the opportunity to come out victorious 6-1, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Nagal is the only Indian in the singles main draw in New York and recently, he joined Novak Djokovic?s new Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) along with compatriot Rohan Bopanna.

Nagal will next take on world No.3 Dominic Thiem, who was leading 7-6(6), 6-3 when his opponent Spaniard Jaume Munar retired.

Klahn topped Nagal in the Aces section but the Indian had a better percentage of first serves (80 per cent) and converted them as well too (76 per cent). What made a huge difference for Nagal was his supreme record of wins on his second serve (86 per cent).

Nagal ranked up a huge number of break points (17) and even though Klahn did fight a whole lot of them, Nagal managed to get on top on six occasions and put himself in a victorious position.

In the final set of the match, which was the fourth set, Nagal raced off to a 5-0 lead and it was only then that Klahn managed to hold his serve once. Nagal pushed him there as well, fighting at deuce, but the American pulled it through to leave it up to Nagal to take the match.

With the ball in his court, quite literally, Nagal won the first three service points to race off to 40-0. However, Klahn fought back to take the next three points to take the game to deuce.

Klahn then even had a break point but the Indian fended it off to take the scoreline back to deuce. Nagal then racked up the next two points to win the match.