Sumit Nagal bows out of Auckland Open with loss to Alex Michelsen

India's Sumit Nagal bowed out of the men's singles opening round at the Auckland Open ATP 250 event following a 7-6 (10-8), 4-6, 2-6 loss to Alex Michelsen on Monday.

Nagal, who had entered the main draw of the competition following a straight sets win over Adrian Mannarino on Sunday, started off well against Michelsen.

The 27-year-old Indian broke Michelsen's serve in the fifth game of the first set. However, the American replied in kind and broke Nagal the very next game to level things up at 3-3.

Michelsen then held his serve before breaking once again to open up a 5-3 lead. With the pressure mounting, Nagal stepped up to break his opponent's serve in the ninth game and stay in the hunt.

Both players held their serves in the next three games and forced a tiebreaker for the first set.

It was Nagal, who took early charge in the tiebreaker and opened up a 2-0 lead. However, Michelsen continued to pose serious questions to the Indian and led 8-7.

From that point, Nagal won three points in a row to wrap up the first set 7-6 (10-8).

However, the joy was short lived for India's highest ranked player as Michelsen broke in just the second game. Though Nagal showed stomach for fight winning a break point himself, Michelsen was right at the top of his game.

The 20-year-old American broke Nagal once again in the second set before winning it 6-4.

A tired Nagal looked a pale shadow of himself in the third set as Michelsen broke him in the third and seventh game to win it 6-2 and wrap up the match in two hours and 40 minutes.