Sumit Nagal’s eight-match winning streak came to an end as he went down to seventh seeded Italian Stefano Napolitano 6-7(2), 4-6 in the semi-finals of the ATP Bengaluru Challenger on Saturday. Nagal, who broke into the top 100 for the first time after winning the Chennai Challenger last week and is placed 98th, is set to drop down three spots in the updated rankings next week. He will, however, have the chance to collect more points in next week’s Pune Challenger, for which he has been named the top seed.
Nagal’s semi-final show in Bengaluru is a step up from last year, when he lost in the Round of 16. In what could be a sign of worry for him, however, the 26-year-old needed a medical timeout in the second set on Saturday for treatment on his right shoulder, which had also bothered him a little in the Chennai final last Sunday.
Coming off a late-night quarter-final finish, the Indian started brighter and broke the Italian to love in the second game. Napolitano broke back in the seventh game and dented Nagal’s serve again in the ninth. But Nagal broke right back with Napolitano serving for the set with a terrific inside out forehand winner. Nagal though produced an error-filled tiebreaker to surrender the set.
The errors continued to mount as Nagal was broken in the second game of the second set after a forehand that crashed into the net. A string of breaks were exchanged thereafter even as Nagal threw his racquet in frustration. At 3-4, the Indian thwarted multiple break points again to hold but, serving to stay in the match, he was twice undone by the net chord — two shots from Napolitano brushed the net and bounced over.
