Sumit Nagal receives wildcard entry into Dubai Championship main draw

Sumit Nagal received a wildcard entry into the main draw of the Dubai Championships, an ATP 500 event.

The qualifiers of the tournament underwent on Saturday.

Nagal will face world no. 49 Lorenzo Sonego of Italy in the first round when the matches of the main draw start on Monday.

The 26-year-old from Faridabad, Haryana, has been in exceptional form this year. He made it to the second round of the Australian Open beating seeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan. By reaching the second round, Nagal became the first Indian since 1989 to beat a seeded player in a Grand Slam. Nagal also became the first player since Somdev Devvarman to advance to the second round of the Australian Open in men's singles.

After the Australian Open, Nagal won the ATP Challenger trophy in Chennai. It was his fifth ATP Challenger trophy.

Due to his exceptional performance, he rose to his career-high ranking of 98 earlier this month, but dropped to 101st, after his eight-match winning streak came to an end at the Bengaluru Open where he lost to Italian Stefano Napolitano 6-7(2), 4-6 in the semifinals.

At the Pune ATP Challenger, Niki Poonacha stunned top seed Nagal 6-4, 6-3 in the pre-quarterfinals.

At the Dubai Championship, Daniil Medvedev of Russia is the top seed. Andrey Rublev Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, Karen Khachanov of Russia, Ugo Humbert and Adrian Mannarino of France, Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain are the other seeded players at the event.

Apart from Nagal, Gael Monfils of France and Abedallah Shelbayh of Jordan have been handed wildcard entries in the event.