India's top-ranked singles player Sumit Nagal suffered a first-round defeat from Russia's 18th-seeded Karen Khachanov. Nagal's valiant effort in the third set went in vain as he went down in straight sets 2-6, 0-6, 6-7 (5-7) at Court 7.
He had a big challenge upon him to upset the big-hitting Russian but could not find enough to match the power and range of his rival. The first break of the match came in game three of the opening set when Khachanov fended off his 40-0 lead despite Nagal saving three breakpoints to win the game due to an unforced error from the Indian.
Rain interrupted the match and there was no play for 21 minutes before the tussle resumed. Khachanov then broke Nagal again in game seven and bagged the set in the next 6-2.
The Indian found it extremely hard to get a game in the second set and despite having two break chances, he could not capitalise on them and gave the Russian a 3-0 cushion. The second set was quickly over but Nagal put up a strong fight in the must-win set.
Nagal was trailing 2-3 and then 3-5 but staged a great comeback, winning the next three games and leading 6-5 with a chance to win the set. But the Russian took it into the tie-breaker and won it 7-5.
