New York: Young Indian tennis player Sumit Nagal earned his first win at a Grand Slam qualifying event, knocking out seasoned Japanese Tatsum Ito in straight sets at the US Open qualifiers, here.
Nagal, placed at a career-best 190 right now, knocked out the 133rd ranked and 26th seed 7-6 (6) 6-2 in one hour and 52 minutes Tuesday.
Last year, he had competed in the qualifiers of the Australian Open, the French Open and the Wimbledon Championships but could not win a round.
This is Nagal’s first attempt at making the Grand Slam singles main draw this season in which he enjoyed considerable success and broke into the top-200.
The 22-year-old from Haryana next faces Canada’s Peter Polansky, who is ranked 192.
Ankita Raina is scheduled to play Czech Republic’s Denisa Allertova in the second round of the women’s singles qualifying event.
PTI
