Tokyo Olympics 2020: Sumit Nagel makes history, achieves 25 years later

Sumit Nagal is the third Indian tennis player to win the men’s singles event at the Olympics in 25 years. At the Tokyo Games, he defeated Denis Istomin in three sets. In two hours and 34 minutes, Nagel defeated Istomin 6-4, 6-7, 6-4. He will now face world number two Daniel Medvedev in the second round. Zeishan Ali defeated Vigo Caballero of Paraguay in the 1988 Tennis Men’s Singles Tournament at the Seoul Olympics. Leander Paes then won a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, defeating Brazil’s Fernando Meligeni.

By pace, no Indians have won a singles event at the Olympics. Somdev Devvarman and Vishnu Vardhan lost in the first round at the 2012 London Olympics. After the match, Nagel said, ‘It’s not easy to come back in such hot weather after losing the second set 5-3. I was playing for a living and it inspired me. I have no idea what I would do if I were playing Challenger. I happily returned from court. He said, ‘It’s really hot and humid here. It is very difficult to play in such weather, especially at around 12 noon. So I tried to focus on service. It’s challenging and I try to match it from mud court to tough court.

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He will now face the tough challenge of Australian Open runner-up Medvedev, who defeated Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan 6-4, 7-6 (8). “I’m very excited about this match against the second-order player in the world on the big court,” Nagle said. We play tennis for this. I’m ready for this match. Nagel was not in his best shape before the Olympics. In the sixth game of the first set, they had a chance to break Istomin’s serve, which they missed. He won the first set by breaking Istomin’s serve. They took a 4-1 lead in the second set but the pressure came on them and they were unable to save their serve. Istomin pulled the match into a tiebreaker. Nagel retained momentum in the last set.