Sumit Nagal replaces Rafael Nadal in Indian Wells 2024 tennis main draw

India’s Sumit Nagal has replaced Rafael Nadal in the men’s singles main draw at the Indian Wells 2024 ATP Masters 1000 tennis tournament.

Sumit Nagal, India’s top-ranked singles player at world No. 101, made the cut as the lucky loser after Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, opted to skip the tournament as ‘he is not ready to play at the highest level.’

A lucky loser is a player who may have lost their qualifying match but enters the main draw of a tennis tournament to replace a player who has withdrawn.

The 37-year-old Nadal missed almost the whole of the 2023 season with an injury, which required surgery. The Spaniard returned to action at the Brisbane International earlier this year but tore a muscle, which ruled him out of the Australian Open.

He has been off tour since but was expected to play at the Indian Wells, which began in California on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Nagal featured in the qualifying rounds of the ATP Masters event but lost his second and final qualifying match to the Republic of Korea’s Seong-chan Hong. The Indian tennis player had earlier beaten the USA’s Stefan Dostanic in the opening round.

Nadal’s withdrawal and with Nagal being the highest-ranked player to lose in the second round of the qualifiers opened the door for the Indian to play in the main draw. The 26-year-old will be up against former world No. 3 Milos Raonic of Canada in the opening round on Friday.

Nagal has been enjoying a strong 2024 season. He made the second round of the Australian Open, defeating world No. 27 Alexander Bublik and became the first Indian tennis player since Ramesh Krishnan in 1989 to beat a seeded player at the Grand Slam.

Last month, Nagal won the Chennai Open ATP Challenger title and broke into the top 100 in the ATP rankings for the first time. He last competed at the Dubai Tennis Championships last week but lost to Lorenzo Sonego of Italy in the first round.