Sumit Nagal became the first Indian man since Ramesh Krishnan (at the 1989 Australian Open) to beat seeded player at a Grand Slam. He defeated world no. 27 and 31st seed Alexander ‘Sasha’ Bublik of Kazakhstan in straight sets 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 in the opening round of Australia Open 2024.
After the win, Nagal spoke to the reporters at the press conference. Excerpts:
Q) First off, congratulations, Sumit. You are the first Indian men’s player to win a singles match here after 11 years after Somdev. How do you feel about your big win today?
Nagal: Emotional. Tired at the same time. It’s been strong I would say the past few months where a lot of things has happened in tennis. Starting the year not getting into challenger quallies, to playing second out of a slam on Thursday. Like I said, it’s been emotional. I’ve worked very hard with my team, and I’m very proud of myself to be able to handle the things that I’m going through and be able to perform the way I want to perform.
So just with regards to the match today, obviously did you go in feeling any pressure? Yes, no? And now everyone at home is watching. How are you going to prep for your next match?
I would say I didn’t have too much pressure. He’s the seed. I’m the underdog. Just qualified playing my first — second Australian Open in main draw. I didn’t feel any pressure, yeah.
On the country watching:
I’ve not thought too much about it. I want to go through this moment, take my time, enjoy being with my coach, have conversation, maybe eat a burger or something, and call it a night, yeah.
Did you do something different today with the serve, or did you just go out there and play your game? How are you dealing with that?
With my serve, of course, the plan was to keep the first-serve percentage very high and not give Sascha too many chances, too many look-arounds where he can pressure in the second return, and I think I did that pretty well. Talking about the game style, it was just not give him too much free points or any type of errors, and I felt like I did that pretty well from the baseline.
On dealing with Bublik serve:
He likes to serve pretty quick, and I’m a very slow walker. For me to get from one place to another place takes ten seconds. So I don’t think I was doing anything purposely, but he is a quick server.
How do you reassess your goals for this Australian Open now, and how much of a factor has the crowd been in pushing you?
It’s been nice. Nobody is going to complain about having…
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