Making significant progress, the emerging Indian talent Sumit Nagal secured his inaugural entry into the main draw of an ATP 500 tournament by successfully qualifying for the Hamburg European Open on Sunday. The 21-year-old triumphed over Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, seeded third and ranked 128th globally, with a score of 6-4, 7-5 in the final qualifying round of the clay court competition.

Prior to this achievement, Nagal, currently ranked 205th, had previously participated in the main draw of the ATP 250 Tata Open Maharashtra in 2018 as a qualifier. ATP 500 events hold prestige as they rank just below ATP Masters series tournaments and the Grand Slams. Until recently, the big stage featured only players like Ramkumar Ramanathan, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, and Yuki Bhambri.

Nagal’s recent success in the Challenger circuit has been remarkable, reaching five semifinals in seven tournaments. Notably, he achieved a career-defining victory over the 56th-ranked Martin Klizan at the Bratislava Open last month. Starting the year outside the top 350, Nagal has made impressive strides and is now on the verge of breaking into the top-200 rankings.