India’s Sumit Nagal notched up the biggest win of his career as the qualifier stunned second seed Cristian Garin to reach the quarter-finals of the Argentina Open early on Thursday morning.
The 23-year-old beat the Chilean player 6-4, 6-3 at the clay-court ATP 250 tournament for the first top-25 win of his career. This is just the second ATP main draw win for the world No 150, who qualified for the tournament and won his first in the earlier round. He had crossed the first hurdle with a dominant 6-2, 6-0 win over world No 100 Joao Sousa in his opener.
He next faces fifth seed and veteran Spaniard Albert Ramos Vinolas.
In the match that lasted an hour and 42 minutes, there were breaks of serve aplenty but it was the Indian who was stronger on serve. Nagal converted seven of the 19 break points he got while saving three of the seven he faced.
The 23-year-old has put in many hours on the clay court this week with two tough three-setters in the qualifiers and the effort has shown in the main draw with the two straight-sets wins over higher ranked players. The Indian chose his favoured clay and went down the South American route after his first-round loss at the Australian Open. He fell in the first qualifying round at Cordoba Open before his good run in Buenos Aires.
The action from the ATP 250 Argentina Open in Buenos Aires - Day 4 will be LIVE on EUROSPORT and EUROSPORT HD from 21:30 Hrs (09:30 pm IST) onwards on Thursday, 4th March 2021.
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