File photo of Sumit Nagal.
Indian tennis star Sumit Nagal will begin his US Open qualifying campaign for a main draw spot as he takes on World No. 246 Juan Pablo Ficovich in the opening round on Tuesday.
Later on Wednesday World No. 156 Prajnesh Gunneswaran will take on Canada's Brayden Schnur (ranked 232) and World No. 204 Ramkumar Ramanathan will face Russia's Evgeny Donskoy (ranked 152).
World No. 165 Nagal heads into the Major event's qualifying round after the opening round exit of two clay-court ATP Challengers events in the Czech Republic and Germany respectively in the first two weeks of the month. Before that, he crashed out in the second round of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to Daniil Medvedev.
In August, at the Svijay Open (Liberec Challenger), the 24-year-old fell at the first hurdle over straight sets to Germany's World No. 209 Maximilian Marterer 4-6, 3-6. He then made an opening-round exit at the Rhein Asset Open (Meersbusch Challenger), losing to eventual champion Marcelo Barrios Vera of Chile in the opening round over three sets 5-7, 6-4, 3-6.
