Sumit Nagal Knocked Out From Australian Open 2024 Following Loss to China's Shang Juncheng in Men's Singles Second Round Match
Sumit Nagal lost a hard-fought match against Shang Juncheng, which halted his dream of making a deep run into the Australian Open 2024. Nagal failed to recreate the first-round magic against the teenager. Nagal lost the match with a 6-2, 3-6, 5-7, 4-6 scoreline.
Entering Melbourne Park Court No. 13 behind huge crowd support and confidence in beating a seeded player at the very Slam, Sumit Nagal looked unstoppable from the beginning, but unforced errors cost him some points in important moments losing the match with a 6-2, 3-6, 5-7, 4-6 scoreline. Wildcard entrant Shang Juncheng also looked confident after his ‘comeback win’ in the first round over Mackenzie Macdonald, and for the second consecutive match, he came from behind to register his second win in AO24, marking his best performance in Grand Slams. Sumit Nagal Visits MCG, Plays Cricket Ahead of his Second Round Match in Australian Open 2024 (Watch Video).
In the first set, Nagal broke Shang Juncheng’s services in the first and seventh games to race to the 6-2 win. Nagal took just 40 minutes to take an early set lead in the match. In the second set, Shang came up strong mixing his game with drops and baseline finishers. He even broke the fourth game of the set to win the set 6-3. And banking on Nagal’s unforced errors, the Chinese tennis star bagged the third set 7-5, taking a set lead in the match. While in the fourth set Shang again broke the seventh game to put pressure on the Indian star. Finally winning the set 6-4 to advance to next round.
In Nagal’s first-round win, he ended 35 years of wait to witness an Indian player defeating a seeded tennis player in any Grand Slam, had he won the second round, Nagal could have been the first Indian Men’s Singles player to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since Leander Paes, ending 16 years wait. With a win in the second round, Shang Juncheng will now face tournament favourite Carlos Alcaraz next who won his match earlier today in four sets.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 18, 2024 02:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).