Sumit Nagal returned to the ATP Challenger Tour winners’ circle after four difficult years that saw the 25-year-old undergo hip surgery, fight Covid multiple times, and battle against his ‘own internal demons’.

But the hard work began to pay off two weeks ago, when the Indian advanced through qualifying en route to claiming the title at the Roma Garden Open.

“When I won, I had a very relieving, calm feeling,” Nagal told ATPTour.com. “Calm in a way because the last few years have been pretty tough for me, on and off the court. To play seven matches in that week and have the body feel all right, it was a relief.”

Following the clay-court title, Nagal shared on Instagram some of the difficulties he’s dealt with the past four years.

“It was hard to believe that this day would come,” Nagal wrote. “I struggled with numerous injuries, came back from surgery, fought covid multiple times, endured tough matches, tougher training regimes, and my own internal demons.”

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A post shared by Sumit Nagal (@nagalsumit)

A three-time Challenger Tour champion, World No. 256 Nagal grew weary of his career being ‘start and stop’. In 2022, he once again found his back against the wall, physically and mentally.

“The worst I felt was last summer, when I was playing a match at the Heilbronn Challenger, where I suffered a tear in my left oblique,” Nagal said. “The effect it had on my mentality was very tough for the next two, three months. For the first time in my life, I think I lost 0-6, 0-6 in a qualifying match [in Luedenscheid]. After that, it just went sideways.

“I was in a very dark place where I was not enjoying tennis, couldn’t find motivation. I was always asking myself, ‘Why me? I didn’t play for seven or eight months, then I play again for four weeks and I’m out again for six weeks. What else do I need to do?’ You start asking, ‘What do I need to do to get rid of this?’ I couldn’t find answers.”

Nagal, who is based at the Nensel Tennis Academy in Germany, relied on his team for motivation. If there were any rare thoughts of quitting, Nagal quickly put those to bed as he thought of his family back home in India.

“For me, it was not an option to quit and go home,” Nagal said. “But for sure there were times where instead of coming to the court or fitness 30 minutes early, I was coming five minutes early. Sometimes you just say, ‘What’s the point? Any way, I’m getting injured.’ These thoughts are very scary and bad because they can take you down. It was a constant fight between my head.

“I promised myself, promised my family, that one day I want to be at this place playing the Slams and if I quit now, there’s no chance I can see that. For me, the very important picture I see is my parents sitting in my match box when I’m playing the biggest tournaments. I want to see that on their faces because they’ve never been to a tournament outside India. I think that would be very big for all of us.”

In 2019, tennis fans were introduced to Nagal at the US Open, where he made his Grand Slam debut and took a set off Roger Federer in the first round. Not long after Nagal’s Flushing Meadows appearance, Nagal reached back-to-back Challenger finals, including his triumph at the Buenos Aires Challenger. The following season, Covid-19 put the Tour on pause when the Indian was playing his best tennis.

Nagal’s journey back to the winners’ circle is a testament of his personality.

“I’m just a grinder, I figure things out,” Nagal said. “That’s probably my biggest strength, I will just figure out a way. If it’s to fix a computer, a light, or whatever random thing done, I will find a way.”

^{Sumit Nagal competes on home soil at the Chennai Challenger in February. Credit: Suman Chattopadhyay}

If it weren’t for Indian legend Mahesh Bhupathi, Nagal may not even have a career in pro tennis.

At age 10, Nagal met Bhupathi when the former doubles World No. 1 was holding a selection for admittance into his academy. One of the cities where the selection was held was in New Delhi, just 40 kilometres from Nagal’s hometown.

“I was hitting with the other kids and there was a moment where I went to Mahesh and said, ‘Mr. Bhupathi, could you please look at my game?’ Nagal recalled to ATPTour.com in 2019. “I knew who he was, so I grabbed his hand and asked him to look at my game. After that, it’s apparently when he told my family that they’re going to take me.

“That’s the one line that changed my life. If I didn’t tell him this, I would not be sitting here right now. My family didn’t have enough money to support me when I was young. I couldn’t have played tennis.”

Can anyone stop Novak Djokovic from successfully defending his Internazionali BNL d’Italia title?

Holger Rune will take his shot at defeating the top seed on Wednesday in Rome in one of two quarter-finals taking place at the Foro Italico. Casper Ruud meet Francisco Cerundolo in the day’s other singles clash.

ATPTour.com previews the first two Rome quarter-finals.

[1] Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs. [7] Holger Rune (DEN)

Reigning champion Djokovic’s quest in Rome for a record-extending 39th ATP Masters 1000 title has been mostly smooth so far. However, he will face his toughest challenge yet when he plays Rune in the quarter-finals.

The 20-year-old Dane stunned the top seed to clinch his maiden Masters 1000 title in their previous meeting in Paris last year and will look to cause the Serbian problems once again in Rome with his powerful game.

“It will be a great experience,” Rune said when asked about playing Djokovic. “The match in Paris was the biggest win of my career. Tomorrow you can’t expect anything other than a top match, so I have to be ready and do everything I can.

“The win in Paris gave me belief. I believe I can beat many players on the Tour. Winning against Novak helped me a lot because he is one of the greatest of all time. It is going to be tough, but I am looking forward to tomorrow.”

Djokovic, who has a chance to return to first in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin if he wins his seventh Rome title, arrived in the Italian capital off the back of disappointing early exits on clay in Monte-Carlo and Banja Luka. He has looked close to his best this week, though, defeating Tomas Martin Etcheverry, Grigor Dimitrov (in three sets) and Cameron Norrie.

Locked at 1-1 in his ATP Head2Head series against Rune, fans will expect fireworks when they face off on centre court on Wednesday. Rune, who lifted the title in Munich last month, is seeking his second Masters 1000 semi-final. On the other side of the net, Djokovic is chasing his 14th last four appearance in Rome.

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[4] Casper Ruud (NOR) vs. [24] Francisco Cerundolo (ARG)

Ruud arrived in Rome off the back of a third-round exit in Monte-Carlo and an opening-round defeat in Madrid. However, in the Italian capital the Norwegian’s level has looked closer to the form with which he won 10 ATP Tour titles, including nine on clay. He has dropped one set en route to the quarter-finals.

Seeking a third consecutive semi-final in Rome, Ruud will next meet Argentine Cerundolo, who upset World No. 8 Jannik Sinner to earn his fifth Top 10 win. Competing in his third Masters 1000 quarter-final, Cerundolo will aim to bring his dynamic, all-court game to his match against Ruud.

The 24-year-old Ruud will be set on gaining revenge, having lost against Cerundolo in Barcelona last month. The Argentine leads the Norwegian 2-1 in their ATP Head2Head series.

Stefanos Tsitsipas finished a long day at the Foro Italico at 1:43 a.m. Wednesday morning when he defeated home favourite Lorenzo Musetti 7-5, 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

When play began Tuesday in Rome, three Italian singles players remained in the tournament. By the end of the day, all three were eliminated, with Tsitsipas dispatching two of them. The fifth seed completed a straight-sets victory against Lorenzo Sonego in the afternoon and then ousted 18th seed Musetti in a match that did not begin until nearly midnight.

“It was a very full day, I’ll tell you that. Spent the entire day at the courts. It had to be done, the rain got in the way, so I’m happy the day ends like this,” Tsitsipas said in his on-court interview. “I put a great effort out there today. Tonight actually, not today!

“It’s been wonderful, delightful in fact, to be playing this way and I need to catch some Zs now, get ready. I think tomorrow’s a day off, so [I have] got to recharge and focus on the next one.”

The 24-year-old beat the last Italian in the field, but Musetti put up a big fight. The straight-sets scoreline does not show how closely the clash was contested.

Tsitsipas was on the verge of surging to a double-break advantage at the start of the match, but suddenly found himself back on serve at the end of the set. But the Italian gave it right back. Musetti tried to take a backhand early straight off the bounce and paid for that decision, mishitting the ball out on set point.

The Italian crowd tried to push its man through, cheering him to an early break in the second set. But in the critical moments, Tsitsipas was the steadier player to take a 5-0 lead in their ATP Head2Head series.

In the second-to-last match of the evening, reigning Cincinnati champion Borna Coric ended the dream run of Hungarian Fabian Marozsan 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. It is the Croatian’s second consecutive Masters 1000 quarter-final after reaching the semi-finals in Madrid, and he will next face Tsitsipas.

“I was working extremely hard in the last couple of months. I haven’t been playing well in the last couple of months,” Coric said in his on-court interview. “But I can say since actually last week I just started to feel better, I also started to play better and it’s just paying off now.”

Marozsan captivated the tennis world with his success in the Italian capital, where he qualified for his first ATP Tour main draw and earned a series of wins once there, including a third-round stunner over second seed Carlos Alcaraz.

The Hungarian was in position to go up a break in the second set but let slip two break points. That proved an important missed opportunity as Coric rallied for a two-hour, 10-minute win.

“I needed the first set just to feel how he plays and obviously he was also playing very, very good, also very fast and I just didn’t get used to that,” Coric said. “But then luckily in the second and in the third sets I just started to serve better and in the end I just found my rhythm.”

When Daniil Medvedev defeated Alexander Zverev on Tuesday to advance to the quarter-finals at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, he also returned to the top spot in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

Medvedev (3,480 points) now leads Carlos Alcaraz (3,455 points) by 35 points and can stretch that lead further this week at the Foro Italico. The 27-year-old can reach as many as 4,300 points if he lifts the trophy in Rome.

Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin (as of 16 May)

It is possible for Medvedev to relinquish top spot before the tournament ends. Third-placed Novak Djokovic, who has 2,745 points, can max out at 3,565 points by claiming his seventh title at the Italian ATP Masters 1000 event. Alcaraz cannot improve because he lost in the third round.

Medvedev can guarantee he will leave Rome with a lead in the Live Race by reaching the semi-finals. He will play qualifier Yannick Hanfmann on Wednesday for a place in the last four.

The Live Race also gives fan a look at the battle for year-end ATP No. 1 presented by Pepperstone. Medvedev reached World No. 1 last year, but he is trying to earn the year-end honour for the first time.

Djokovic holds the record for most year-end No. 1 finishes with seven and in 2022, Alcaraz became the youngest player to claim the distinction.

The Live Race also decides who qualifies for the Nitto ATP Finals, which this year will be played from 12-19 November in Turin. Rounding out the top eight are Stefanos Tsitsipas, Jannik Sinner, Andrey Rublev, Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune. Sinner and Rune are trying to qualify for the year-end championships for the first time, while the Italian competed as an alternate in 2021.

Have the match-winning floodgates opened for Daniil Medvedev in Rome?

After going 0-3 at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia prior to this year, the World No. 3 on Tuesday notched his third win of this year’s edition of the ATP Masters 1000 by defeating Alexander Zverev 6-2, 7-6(3).

The fourth-round clash was the 15th edition of one of the most intriguing ATP Head2Head clashes on Tour, and Medvedev made it nine wins to Zverev’s six in that matchup with a trademark display of relentless baseline retrieving to counter the big-serving challenge of the 2017 Rome champion.

Zverev had already tasted victory on Tuesday at the Foro Italico, where he earlier wrapped up a rain-delayed third-round triumph against J.J. Wolf. He was unable to pull off a successful double-header Tuesday however, as Medvedev dominated the extended baseline exchanges throughout and converted three of nine break points to register his Tour-leading 36th win of the season.

Despite Zverev reclaiming a break to force a second-set tie-break, Medvedev produced a high-class tie-break to seal a one-hour, 56-minute victory, his third of the season against Zverev. The 27-year-old’s quarter-final opponent in Rome will be Yannick Hanfmann, who earlier upset Monte-Carlo champion Andrey Rublev 6-2, 7-6(3).

More to follow…

You don’t have to look hard to find enticing early-round contests at this week’s ATP Challenger Tour 175 event in Bordeaux, France.

Several Grand Slam champions are among the Bordeaux field, including Dominic Thiem, who rallied from a set down Tuesday to escape Benoit Paire at the BNP Paribas Primrose. Stan Wawrinka also earned a victory to set a blockbuster clash against Andy Murray.

The Austrian Thiem overcame early serve trouble to get past home favourite Paire 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 at the clay-court event. After winning just seven of 14 points off his first delivery in the opening set, Thiem dropped just six first-serve points the rest of the match.

The 2020 US Open champion, who was a semi-finalist at last week’s Challenger event on home soil in Mauthausen, will next face another Frenchman, eighth seed Corentin Moutet.

Paire also enjoyed a strong run at a Challenger event last week, reaching the final at the Francavilla al Mare Challenger.

In other Bordeaux action, Wawrinka needed just one hour, seven minutes to oust qualifier Ugo Blanchet 6-3, 6-1 and set up a must-watch second-round clash against former World No. 1 Murray (NB 5:45 p.m. local Wednesday).

Wawrinka and Murray, who are each three-time major champions, have met on the biggest stages of the sport, including in two tour-level finals (2008 Doha, 2019 Antwerp) and two Grand Slam semi-finals (Roland Garros 2016, 2017). They’ve also met at the Nitto ATP Finals, in Davis Cup, and at the Olympics. Across 22 tour-level meetings, Murray leads Wawrinka 13-9.

Watch Match Of The Day: Andy Murray vs Stan Wawrinka (NB 5:45 p.m. local)

Earlier this month, Murray captured the Challenger 175 title in Aix-en-Provence, where he beat World No. 17 Tommy Paul in the final. The second seed Murray and Wawrinka are among a stacked bottom half in the Bordeaux draw, alongside Richard Gasquet, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Ugo Humbert, and Mikael Ymer.

In a battle of #NextGenATP Frenchmen, Luca Van Assche survived wild card Harold Mayot 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. In the deciding set, Van Assche fended off seven of eight break points to escape the first round.

Turin:
Several upsets occurred Tuesday at the Piemonte Open Intesa Sanpaolo. Home hope qualifier Federico Gaio defeated eighth seed Oscar Otte 6-4, 7-5 after winning 28 of 35 first-serve points and Salvatore Caruso rallied to upset sixth seed Yosuke Watanuki 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the Challenger 175 event.

Wild card Flavio Cobolli and 28-year-old Stefano Napolitano were among the Italians to earn victories on home soil. #NextGenATP star Cobolli cruised past Ukrainian Aleksandr Braynin 6-3, 6-3 while his countryman Napolitano escaped three-time Challenger Tour champion Otto Virtanen 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.

Dominik Koepfer, who was a finalist at last week’s Prague Challenger, needed just one hour, eight minutes to down Giulio Zeppieri and set up a second-round meeting against third seed Juan Pablo Varillas.

Dominik Koepfer in first-round action at the Turin Challenger. Credit: Francesco Panunzio

Lucky loser Gianluca Mager added to Tuesday’s upsets with a 6-1, 7-6(9) victory against seventh seed Aleksandar Kovacevic. The Italian Mager converted his six match point to defeat the World No. 113 Kovacevic, who fought back from 2-5 down in the second set to force a tie-break.

Top-2 seeds Sebastian Baez and Daniel Elahi Galan will begin their Turin campaign on Wednesday.

First round secured 💪

Qualifier Salvatore Caruso takes out No. 6 seed Watanuki 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in Turin#ATPChallenger | @federtennis pic.twitter.com/qFyrUZV9zm

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) May 16, 2023

“The main priority is to get into the main draw, to play with the big guys. That’s the pressure.”

So says Yannick Hanfmann, who gave a stark reminder of the strength-in-depth of the ATP Tour on Tuesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where the World No. 101 upset sixth seed Andrey Rublev 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 to reach his maiden ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final in Rome.

Hanfmann is accustomed to having to earn the right to take on Top 10 opponents like Rublev. The No. 101-ranked German has qualified for a Tour-leading six main draws in 2023, including at back-to-back Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome. His two-hour, 33-minute fourth-round win against the World No. 6, the biggest win of the 31-year-old’s career, was his sixth match in nine days at the Foro Italico.

“It can go two ways,” Hanfmann told ATPTour.com earlier this month when asked about competing as a qualifier in main draws. “It can be a little bit like [you are] wearing out, playing tough matches in qualifying, and then maybe it’s a little bit of a negative.

“But [in Madrid, for example], I qualified [with] two fairly straightforward matches. So [I felt] good. I [knew] the conditions at an event where it’s tough to play. So I think that’s definitely to my advantage.”

Hanfmann was one of three Germans to play qualifying in Madrid who impressed in the main draw. He was beaten by lucky loser and eventual quarter-finalist Daniel Altmaier in the second round while another lucky loser, Jan-Lennard Struff, went on to reach the final (after beating qualifier Aslan Karatsev in the semi-finals).

With Hanfmann’s subsequent dream run to the last eight in Rome, a qualifier or lucky loser has reached the quarter-finals or better in four straight ATP Masters 1000 events.

“The satisfaction is definitely there [after qualifying for the main draw], but it’s short-lived,” explained Hanfmann. “Because then once you’re there, you want to keep going. I think what helped me in the past is to get in to a match rhythm and go far into the tournament because I’ve shown that when I get my matches, that I’m actually dangerous.

“I won my first round in Houston and I went far (to the semi-finals), and in Santiago I went far (quarter-finals). It’s nice to have that, to get into a rhythm and then just be dangerous.”

Qualifiers/Lucky Losers To Reach Quarter-Finals At Past Four ATP Masters 1000 Events

That approach has worked again for Hanfmann in Rome. He produced a rock-solid display of baseline hitting on Tuesday to outlast Rublev and clinch his second Top 10 victory of the event after his second-round win against Taylor Fritz. Hanfmann’s fierce forehand in particular was decisive to him prevailing in a tense final set, during which he saved six of seven break points he faced.

In 2022, Hanfmann’s opportunities to challenge the best on Tour were more scarce. He played in six ATP Tour main draws all season, two via qualifying. Now with a 12-6 record for 2023 and a quarter-final against Daniil Medvedev or Alexander Zverev to look forward to in Rome, does he feel like something has changed?

“It’s a great feeling to step on the court against a player like [Rublev] and it doesn’t scare me anymore,” said the German after his thrilling triumph on Tuesday. “It used to, maybe. I would be like, ‘Wow, OK, I don’t know how I can play with him’, but now I know I’ve beaten those guys. I’m old enough to see what I can do on the court, especially on clay, and I feel dangerous against anyone.”

In front of a full crowd on Pietrangeli, top seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski survived a second-round test Tuesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

The Dutch-British duo ousted home favourites Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 6-4, 7-6(5) to advance to the Rome quarter-finals. Despite serving for the match at 5-4, Koolhof and Skupski were pushed to a second-set tie-break before moving past last year’s semi-finalists.

Koolhof and Skupski, who collected seven team titles in 2022, are aiming for their first trophy this season. They reached the final in Indian Wells and in Barcelona, but fell in a Match Tie-break on both occasions. Koolhof and Skupski will look to reach their second ATP Masters 1000 semi-final of the season when they meet Australian duo Alex de Minaur and Jason Kubler.

In Tuesday’s quarter-final action, Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski defeated Americans Mackenzie McDonald and Frances Tiafoe 7-5, 7-6(2) after winning 38 of 43 first-serve points. Robin Haase and Botic van de Zandschulp rallied to escape Jamie Murray and Michael Venus 3-6, 7-6(3), 10-6.

Tennis Data Innovations (TDI) has engaged Champion Data to develop the Tennis Sport Data Platform (TSDP), a critical piece of its technology framework set to transform the way tennis data is collected, analysed and consumed.

Champion Data is a company with more than 20 years’ experience delivering sports data and related services to broadcasters, sports organisations and betting providers across multiple sports including football, golf horse racing, AFL and lacrosse. The collaboration marks the latest step in TDI’s growth plans, which include delivering significant enhancements to tennis data capabilities alongside major growth in the value of its rights deals.

The TSDP will enable TDI to ingest, merge and distribute multiple live data sources from professional tennis, including umpire scoring and player & ball tracking data, at ultra-low latency. This puts TDI in position to directly serve the needs of its customers, including media, betting partners, players and fans as well as the capability to service other tennis bodies in future. Players and fans alike will benefit from the rich stream of content generated by the platform, as the stories behind pivotal moments in tennis are told through data.

The TSDP will also serve as a rich and accessible archive of historical data sets, in addition to providing an open ‘sandbox’ environment to enable third parties to innovate with tennis data.

David Lampitt, CEO of TDI, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Champion Data to create a game-changing platform for tennis data. Our goal is not only to deliver the most accurate and reliable tennis data but also transform the way in which these assets can be managed, enabling new narratives and storytelling possibilities for the tennis industry. Champion Data are specialists in the field, bringing together their extensive experience in data and analytics with our vision for the future of tennis.”

Chris Hume, Director of Champion Data, said: “Champion Data is thrilled to be appointed as the Official Data Platform provider to TDI. To be entrusted to deliver such a progressive and important project, at a pivotal time for the ATP and the world of Tennis, is a privilege. We work closely alongside sports rights holders to enable and support their vision around data integrity, to deliver one source of truth. The power of the platform is in its ability to harness collaboration to generate a rich database of exciting new metrics and creative content for media stakeholders, players, betting partners and tennis fans globally.”