Less than two days ago, Sumit Nagal limped his way to victory in the first round that forced the Indian to withdraw from the doubles’ draw of the Bengaluru Open on Wednesday.
The pull-out that gave the 25-year-old Nagal an extra rest day seemed to be working, at least initially, during his round-of-16 clash against Australia’s Max Purcell at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) courts on Thursday.
But, he struggled to keep his emotions in check throughout the 2-hour nine-minute contest to go down 6-4, 3-6, 3-6 to the higher-ranked Purcell.
It was the 155-ranked Australian - fresh off his title at the Chennai Open last week - who began on the back foot.
Nagal looked comfortable running down every ball, played a forehand down-the-line pass to break Purcell in the seventh game and go 4-3 up. He followed it by holding his serve twice to take the first set 6-4.
With the battle evenly poised, Nagal - still complaining to his box every now and then - managed to hold the sixth game from being 0-40 down to stay 3-3 in the second set.
But a stoic Aussie waited for the flustered Indian to make mistakes. Add to that, a medical time-out at 4-3 up to strap his ankle gave Purcell the breakthrough.
The 24-year-old broke the next game to take a 5-3 lead that was enough to close out the second 6-3.
The story of the third set wasn’t too different except Purcell smashed more aces (13 for the match) to make the going even tougher for the local hope.
Nagal put up a last-minute fight in the ninth and final game. Serving to stay in the match, Nagal saved five match points besides creating three game points for himself.
While he saved the fifth match point with an ace, Nagal’s backhand went straight into the net to give Purcell the win on his sixth match point, ensuring Nagal’s exit. Thus ended the Indian challenge in the singles draw of the event.
Results (singles, round of 16): Max Purcell (Aus) bt Sumit Nagal 4-6, 6-3, 6-3; 2-James Duckworth (Aus) bt Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (Fra) 6-1, 6-2; 8-Dimitar Kuzmanov (Bul) bt Alibek Kachmazov 6-3, 6-4; 5-Luca Nardi (Ita) bt Jason Jung (Tpe) 7-5, 5-7, 6-2.