Somdev Devvarman: Sumit Nagal showed he has the game and the character
Nagal’s Tokyo 2020 may have ended, but he had become the first Indian in 25 years to win a singles match at the Olympics
Sumit Nagal’s Olympic campaign came to an end on Monday as he went down 2-6, 1-6 to World No 2 Daniil Medvedev on Monday. But former India player Somdev Devvarman believes that the 23-year-old showed a lot of positives in his brief time at Tokyo 2020.
It wasn’t easy for Nagal, who had been playing on the European clay Challenger circuit, to fly down to Tokyo at short notice as he got into the men’s singles draw of the Olympics on July 16 due to a glut of withdrawals. He made his Olympic debut against Asian Games champion Denis Istomin, who has scalps like Novak Djokovic to his name on hard courts.
But the Indian was quick off the blocks and raced to a set and break lead. He overcame a slight wobble at the end of the second set to defeat the bespectacled Uzbek 6-4, 6-7, 6-4. The result meant he was the first Indian player, since Leander Paes’s bronze medal win at Atlanta 1996, to win a singles round at the Olympics.
“In his first round, he showed two things: he showed he has the game and he has the character. These are both very important things,” Devvarman, who peaked at a career high of 62 in 2011, told Olympics.com.
“He hasn't played a whole lot of matches of late, especially on hard courts. It's not easy to be in such a commanding winning position, lose that, be behind in the third and come back. I think it was a very positive result.”
The 36-year-old, however, believes Nagal is still not ready to take on the big guns in tennis. The Indian didn’t have enough firepower to hurt Medvedev, who has made the finals of both the hard-court majors (2019 US Open and 2021 Australian Open).
“I have played against the top players as well and I have been kind of dominated,” smiled Devvarman, who had taken on heavyweights like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in his day.
“For Sumit, there's just a few things that he has to mature and get a little bit better. He's not good enough right now to play against the top 10. But for me it highlights the areas of his game that he needs to work on and he going to go back and do that for sure.”
Even though some of Nagal’s best results have come on hard courts – he has made the US Open main draw the last two years and won a round in 2020—it is still not his favourite surface. The 23-year-old is more at home on clay courts, which allow him the opportunity to grind out wins.
He is likely to travel to the USA next for the hard-court season ahead of the last major of the season.