Australian Open 2024: Sumit Nagal goes down fighting in second round against Juncheng Shang of China
Sumit Nagal had defeated Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan in straight sets 6-4,6-2, 7-6 (7-5) in the first round to become the first Indian to reach the second round of the Australian Open after 11 years.
India's only hope in the men's singles of the ongoing Australian Open 2024, Sumit Nagal went down fighting in the second round at the hands of China's Juncheng Shang by 6-2, 3-6, 5-7 and 4-6. The 140th-ranked Shang was quick to recover after conceding the first set and won the next three to seal the victory in his favour.
The match turned out to be an evenly-contested one where Nagal had his moments but the 26-year-old failed to grab those opportunities with both hands and it ended up costing him. Just like the first round, a victory for Sumit against Shang would have assured him a place in history as he would have become the first Indian men's singles player since Leander Paes in 1998 to advance to the third round of a Grand Slam. But it wasn't meant to be.
Sumit began the fixture in style as he didn't allow the 18-year-old Chinese to settle and bagged the opening set 6-2. But Shang wrestled back momentum in style to take the second set 3-6.
The third set witnessed a gripping contest between the two players and Shang was able to control his nerves better. A loss in the third set landed a lethal blow to Sumit's chances of making a comeback and that's what it eventually turned out to be as Shang bagged the fourth set and the game.
Shang will now face the second seed and one of the top contenders for the title, Carlos Alcaraz. Spain's Alcaraz was stretched a bit in his second-round fixture by Italy's Lorenzo Sonego. The 20-year-old Spaniard won the first set 6-4 before Sonego came back from behind to claim the second one 7-6 in a tie breaker.
However, Alcaraz took it as a wake-up call and won the third set 6-3. The fourth set went right down the wire and saw Alcaraz claim the honours in yet another tie-breaker.