Sumit Nagal makes winning start at Nordea Open, beats Sweden's Elias Ymer

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India’s top singles player Sumit Nagal finally got the better of Elias Ymer to make a winning start at the Nordea Open here on Tuesday.

Going into the ATP 250 event, Paris Olympics-bound Nagal was down 0-2 in Head-to_head record against the Swede wild card. Nagal extended his good run with a 6-4 6-3 win over the talented Ymer, who has played a lot of events in India with considerable success.

Nagal, who is now placed 68th in the ATP singles chart, next faces world number 36 Mariano Navone from Argentina. Nagal will represent India at the Paris Olympics.

Meanwhile, Rohan Bopanna and N Sriram Balaji, who will also compete in Paris in men’s doubles, are set to play their first ever ATP Tour event together.

They are scheduled to take on German pair of Mark Wallner and Jakob Schnaitter in the opening round of the Hamburg Open, which is a ATP 500 event, on Wednesday.

Sumit Nagal reached a new career-high ranking of 68 in the latest ATP Rankings released on Monday, making him the fourth highest-ranked Indian man since the system was introduced in 1973.

Nagal climbed five spots after his historic Grand Slam appearances, surpassing Sashi Menon, with whom he had previously shared the joint-fourth highest ranking of 71 on the all-time list.

Ahead of Sumit are Somdev Devvarman (62), Ramesh Krishnan (23) and Vijay Amritraj (18). The 26-year-old debuted at the French Open but was defeated in the first round. He also made his first appearance in the men’s singles main draw at Wimbledon, where he was again eliminated in the opening round.

(With PTI Inputs)