Spotlight on Nagal | Bengaluru News
Bengaluru: India hosted four ATP Challenger events in early 2025, but singles players from the host nation fired blanks. The win-loss record in the main draw was 1-13 across four cities— Chennai, Delhi, Pune and Bengaluru — with Mukund Sasikumar being the only Indian to win a match. The new year brings a fresh start, and the Indian players will aim to kick off their season on a positive note, beginning with the Bengaluru Open at the SM Krishna tennis stadium here on Monday.With India No 1 Sumit Nagal (World No. 277) featuring in the ATP 125 event, the 28-year-old is the country’s biggest hope of glory in the tenth edition alongside wildcard Dhakshineswar Suresh (523). Aryan Shah (402), Karan Singh (471) and wildcards Manas Dhamne (588) and SD Prajwal Dev (632), who complete the Indian line-up in the singles draw.The spotlight will be on Nagal, who started last year in the top-100. The Haryana man skipped the Indian Challenger swing for events in South America, but was troubled with illness and back injuries in the first half of 2025. Nagal, who has appeared eight times in the main draw of Grand Slams, can use the competition as a springboard to climb the rankings that will guarantee him a place in the main draw of majors.The 2017 Bengaluru Open champion, who will face Karnataka’s Prajwal in the opening round, is well prepared after sweating it out in the Garden City, preparing for the 2026 season. “I invested a lot of time training and practising during the pre-season, around six to seven weeks. But I don’t want to set a goal (for the) tournament. The year is very long,” Nagal said.Suresh in the mixThe big-serving Suresh has an all-round game to trouble higher-ranked players as the then 155th-ranked Jerome Kym of Switzerland, who lost 6-7, 3-6 to the Indian, found out in the Davis Cup World Group I tie in Biel in Sept.The 6 ft 5″ player competed in the World Tennis League here last month, helping him acclimatise to the high-altitude conditions and prepare for the year’s first challenge. Suresh and Nagal are in the bottom half of the draw, and could run into each other in the quarterfinals. A good outing here will also act as a confidence booster ahead of the Davis Cup qualifiers against the Netherlands next month at the same venue. The young Indians in the fray, including 18-year-old Manas, Aryan (20) and Karan (22) are the future of tennis in the country. The trio, who will face unseeded players in the first round, have it in them to claim big upsets.The six-day event boats of a strong field comprising top seed Pedro Martinez (92, Spain), fourth seed Lloyd Harris (222, South Africa), the US Open quarterfinalist in 2021. The six Indian players need to raise their bar if they are to have any chance of going deep in the tournament.Rawat in final round of qualifyingIndia’s Sidharth Rawat scored a 6-3, 7-5 victory over compatriot Nitin Kumar Sinha to reach the final round of qualifying Sunday. Other Indians, including Ramkumar Ramanathan and Adil Kalyanpur amongst others suffered losses. Qualifying results (Indians only): Aziz Ouakaa (Tun) bt Aditya Vishal Balsekar (Ind) 6-4, 7-6(3); Niels Visker (Ned) bt Manish Sureshkumar (Ind) 6-3, 6-3; Arthur Reymond (Fra) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan (Ind) 7-5, 7-6(3); Dominik Palan (Cze) bt Dev Javia (Ind) 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(5); Eero Vasa (Fin) bt Adil Kalyanpur (Ind) 3-6, 6-3, 6-0; Sidharth Rawat (Ind) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha (Ind) 6-3, 7-5.
