"It’s an emotional high": India's Sumit Nagal

India’s Sumit Nagal returns to Sweden’s Elias Ymer during the Swedish Open in Bastad on Tuesday. Pic/Getty Images

From considering quitting tennis over 15 years ago, at the age of 12, due to an interruption in his training programme, to qualifying for back-to-back Olympics in men's singles, Sumit Nagal, turning 27 next month, has come a long way.

En route he has had quite a few noteworthy achievements like taking the opening set off the legendary Roger Federer at the 2019 US Open. Nagal also won his first-round matches at the Tokyo 2020 Games and the Australian Open earlier this year. At the year's first Grand Slam, Nagal stunned then World No. 31 Alexander Bublik - a player then ranked nearly 100 places above him - in straight sets 6-4, 6-2, 7-6. Nagal had also bagged the Wimbledon boys doubles title back in 2015.

Love for street cricket

Hailing from a middle class family in Jhajjar, Haryana, like most Indian kids, Nagal also wanted to be a cricketer. However, his father insisted for him to play an individual sport and after a discussion with a family friend, tennis was chosen. "I played a lot of street cricket in my childhood. There was a lot of competition and eagerness to win. Tennis happened because my father felt that I had a lot of energy which was being wasted outside the school," Nagal tells mid-day.

In 2005, Nagal was among the three players selected from a few thousand aspirants, by India's doubles legend Mahesh Bhupathi for his tennis academy. And there has been no looking back since.

Nagal's hard work in the extremely competitive world of professional tennis has been relentless. And fittingly, earlier this week, he attained a career-high ranking of 68, thus becoming the fourth highest-ranked Indian male, after Vijay Amritraj (ranked 18th in 1980), Ramesh Krishnan (23rd in 1985) and Somdev Devvarman (62nd in 2011).

So what's it like to journey from a ranking close to 500 less than a year-and-a-half back to a career-high 68?

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Labour pays off

"From a ranking of 500, around 16 months ago to my current ranking, it has been a lot of hard work with some great tennis matches, strenuous practice sessions and tough days overall. There are so many ups and downs that it's very tough to be positive week after week. But at the end of the day, I'm happy I could motivate myself to do all this. If you see the bigger picture, it's a good situation to be in today," remarks Nagal.

The professional grind aside though, wearing the tricolor on your shirt at the Olympics is a special high. Nagal is only the second Indian player since former Davis Cup skipper Leander Paes to qualify in the men's singles event at back-to-back Olympics.

"It's a very proud feeling to be the only men's singles player to represent India at the Paris Olympics. It's an emotional high. It's great to have so much support and hope riding on my shoulders which not too many people could have lived through. So, I respect it and I'm very much looking forward to Paris," he adds.

Qualifying for Paris wasn't easy however. "I knew that if I win my last Challenger [Heilbronn Challenger, Germany, in June], I'll get an entry to the Paris Olympics, but there was also the fear that if I don't then I would probably have to wait. It's tough to control your nerves while playing at such a level," he says.

For any big event, preparation is key, and Nagal has his plans laid out. "I really enjoy playing on clay courts and to prepare for the Paris Games, I will be playing three tournaments on clay," he says.

Bhupathi and fitness trainer Milos Galecic have been Nagal's biggest influences and the tennis ace is pleased to know that he will be having his trainer by his side in Paris. "Milos will be travelling with me during the Paris Olympics, and I am very happy about this development. My goal is to constantly keep improving. Be it mentally or physically, you have to keep improving always because if you don't, the other players around you are improving and then there's a huge difference between them and you," he explains.

Love for street food

The professional strain of living out of the country for most part of the year notwithstanding, Nagal misses Indian food a lot. "I love street food. I relish golgappas [paani puri], jalebi and samosas. I enjoy video games too and whenever I'm with my friends, we head out to catch a movie or to a restaurant,"
he concludes.