Nagal admitted he was physically a notch below Kwon Soonwoo as India slumped to a 1-3 Davis Cup defeat against Korea, with the Indian number one suffering his fourth loss in as many singles matches this season, even as captain Rohit Rajpal backed the struggling player and urged the team to move forward positively.
India lost a great opportunity to make the Davis Cup knockout round after losing to a very much beatable Korea. The Indian singles players won their opening sets but ended up giving away the advantage to lose their respective singles on Friday, putting the team down 0-2.
Nagal, who had fought through a long singles battle on the opening day against Hyeon Chung, looked short of his best against Kwon in the must-win reverse, losing 1-6 2-6 as Korea sealed the tie.
“I think more than mentally, it was physically. He played at a very high level. I was one level down, he was one level up. That made a big difference between me and him. He just outplayed me, that’s it,” Nagal said after India’s defeat.
Nagal, who has now lost all four of his Davis Cup singles matches in 2026, said Kwon made the most of conditions that suited his game.
“It’s very tough to hurt him here. It’s not easy to outplay him in these conditions. It’s very suitable for him. The balls are heavy, everything goes to his knee, he can barely hit anything above his shoulder, while my game style is very opposite to him,” he said.
The Indian also felt Kwon was physically fresher after playing a shorter match earlier in the tie.
“Finishing later in the evening yesterday and then at least he had three-four hours and a very different match. He played his singles and mine, obviously, was longer, more rallies,” Nagal said.
“He played DK, much faster points. You could see that he was physically better than me today, which was expected.”
Captain Rohit Rajpal was asked if a mid-match conversation from him could helepd Nagal some way but it was the player who offered to answer saying there was little the captain could have done differently once the match got away from him.
“At the end of the day, it’s not his job. It’s my job when I step on the court to carry the team, to carry the flag.
It was not an even match. Whatever a captain or my friends would say, I was still very far behind. He didn’t give me a chance.”
Rajpal, however, refused to put the defeat on Nagal, stressing that India had to take collective responsibility for the loss.
“We play as a team. I am not going to single out anyone for that matter. We win as a team. Even in Bengaluru he had a tear, he taped himself , we did not tell anyone and almost pulled off the match. Everybody goes up and down.”
The captain felt India had failed to close out key moments and that Korea had benefited from playing at home.
“We just lacked finish and luck favoured them. A lot of things went their way. This Davis Cup is all about home advantage but we needed to close the match,” he said.
Rajpal also felt Nagal’s opening-day singles could have gone India’s way after the Indian fought back into the third set.
“Yesterday’s match was clearly Sumit’s match. Third set he was back to 4-4 from 1-4,” he said.
India’s 0-2 deficit after the opening day eventually proved decisive, according to Rajpal.
“The tie was lost on the first day when we were down 0-2. We need to move forward positively. We all have learnt and will do much better next time,” he said.
Nagal, meanwhile, maintained that he had given his best despite being unable to match Kwon’s level.
“I’m not saying that I didn’t try. I did try. It was just, let’s say, not a day where points were going towards me. That’s it,” he said.
Dhakshineswar was pulled to play doubles as well like the Netherlands tie and if Nagal had won his match, the lanky lad would have played the decisive reverse singles as well. Asked if it was fair that he has been asked to play three matches, the Indian did not complaint.
“It’s actually a privilege to play. It does not happen often that we get to play Davis Cup, so no complaints,” he said.
India will now return to the Davis Cup Qualifiers Round 1 in 2027.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Read Desk. It is published from a syndicated feed)