Tennis: Sumit Nagal reaches career-high ATP ranking of 122

India's top singles player Sumit Nagal reached his career high ATP ranking of 122 on Monday, a five-place jump from his previous ranking of 127.

The ranking improvement came following his striding to the quarterfinals of Prague Open last week, where he beat Jay Clarke in Round of 32 and Jiri Lehecka in Round of 16. In the quarters, Nagal faced 17th ranked Swiss star Stan Wawrinka, where the latter advanced to the singles semi-finals with a come-from-behind 2-6, 6-0, 6-1 win.

Was fun playing in Prague after a 5 month gap

New York next ✈️ pic.twitter.com/MslMBoSpOn

— Sumit Nagal (@nagalsumit) August 20, 2020

Nagal took the first set off the Swiss champ. The 23-year-old Indian bagged the first set 6-2 in stunning fashion after breaking the Swiss heavyweight's serve to raise hopes of an upset win. But it was not to be as the Indian, ranked 127, was overpowered by the World 17 Wawrinka who won the next two sets 6-0, 6-1 to pocket the match that lasted one hour and 19 minutes and advance to the semifinals.

Nagal had also taken a set off another Swiss star and multiple Grand Slam winner Roger Federer in the US Open last year before losing the match.

He had entered the quarterfinals of this Euro 137,560 claycourt tournament following a 5-7 7-6(4) 6-3 win over lower-ranked local player Kiri Lehecka.