Sumit Nagal wins Chennai Open, breaks into top 100 of ATP rankings

India's star tennis player Sumit Nagal clinched the Chennai Open ATP Challenger title as he beat Luca Nardi of Italy in straight sets in Chennai on Sunday.

Ranked 121st in the ATP rankings, Nagal, who in January played in the second round of the Australian Open Grand Slam, broke into the top 100 of the ATP rankings following his title-winning performance.

Nagal won the match in straight-set (6-1, 6-4). He is the first Indian man since Prajnesh Gunneswaran in 2019 to make it to the top 100 and tenth overall to achieve the feat.

On Monday, when the rankings get updated, Nagal will be ranked 98th.

Nagal started the match aggressively and remained on top of his game as he quickly wrap up the set with the double break and bagged it with 6-1.

In the second set, Both nagal and Nardi struggles with their serve before Nagal ramped up his this game saving two break points game and clinched the set 6-4 and the match in straight sets.

After winning the match, Nagal celebrated the win with a roar and jump before sharing an emotional moment with his coach Somdev Devvarman.

This was Nagal's fifth ATP Challenger title in eight finals. Last year at the Garden Open in Rome, he broke his four-year-long hiatus by entering the final of the ATP Challenger event.

Nagal beat Jesper de Jong in straight sets in the final to win the title, becoming the first Indian player to win a Challenger title on European clay. Due to this win, Nagal reentered the top 260 on 8 May 2023. Nagal would follow his Garden Open win with yet another ATP Challenger title at the Tampere Challenger in Finland, making it two out of two on clay court.

Nagal soon break into the top 150 by making two more semifinals in Europe and now he has entered the top 100, which makes him even closer to his dream of getting qualification at the Paris Olympics through ranking quota.

He Continues his fine form earlier this year where, the 26-year-old upset 31st seed Alexander Bublik in straight sets, and became the first Indian tennis player to beat a seeded player in the singles main draw of a Grand Slam since Ramesh Krishnan who beat then world no.1 and defending champion Mats Wilander at the 1989 Australian Open.