Indian ace tennis player, Sumit Nagal broke his eight-match losing streak with an upset victory against Facundo Acosta of Argentina in a three-set encounter at the qualifying round 1 of Basel ATP on Saturday.
Sumit came from behind to register a victory in a very close (5-7, 7-6, 7-6) outing against the higher-ranked opponent (world no.67) in a tiring match that lasted for three hours and 43 minutes.
This was the fourth between the two players and Sumit registered his second consecutive win over Acosta after losing the first two to level their head-to-head record to 2-2. Coincidentally, all four meetings between them went into a deciding set.
In the first set, Acosta came out all guns blazing and troubled the Indian on his serve, and won 11 break-point opportunities. Sumit fought hard and saved nine of those but it wasn’t enough as he dropped the set, 5-7.
The second set was much more accurate as none of the two players dropped any service game and went into a tiebreaker where Sumit came out on top, winning four mini-breaks to force a decider in the match.
The decider was also looking for a tie-breaker but then in the ninth game, Sumit gave an important break to the Argentine.
Acosta, serving for the match, looked good to take the win but then Sumit made a turnaround and got his break back to level the score to take the set in a tiebreaker and then win the match.
Sumit will now take on another higher-ranked (World no.63) opponent, James Duckworth of Australia in the final qualifying round, sighting a place in the main draw of this ATP 500 event.
This will be the second meeting between the two players and the experienced Australian player took the victory in their last meeting. However, they haven’t played each other in the last eight years.
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