Sumit Nagal in motion towards Geoffrey Blancaneaux within the Bengaluru Open 2024 on Tuesday, February 13, 2024.
| Picture Credit score: Sudhakara Jain
Sumit Nagal made a assured begin to his dafaNews Bengaluru Open marketing campaign, beating France’s Geoffrey Blancaneaux 6-2, 6-2 on the KSLTA courts inside Cubbon Park right here on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old, who broke into the ATP high 100 after final week’s triumph in Chennai, is a former champion within the Backyard Metropolis, having gained the Challenger in 2017. And the World No. 98 performed like he knew the circumstances just like the again of his hand.
Bengaluru’s altitude doesn’t actually help flat and aggressive stroke-making, and Nagal, thus, hit with excessive net-clearance and on the similar time imparted sufficient spin to pull the ball again in and preserve it in play.
There have been no quick balls for Blancaneaux to assault, and the depth was such that he was principally pinned an excellent two toes behind the baseline. Nagal broke within the first and seventh video games of the primary set and took it 6-2 when Blancaneaux despatched a backhand lengthy.
Within the second stanza, Blancaneaux tried to hit by way of the court docket, charged in every so often and even took up aggressive court docket positions at instances to rattle Nagal. However the Indian, cheered on by a sizeable crowd revelling within the cool night circumstances, was as much as the duty, forcing the Frenchman to chop an exasperated determine.
Sumit Nagal in motion towards Geoffrey Blancaneaux within the Bengaluru Open 2024 on Tuesday, February 13, 2024.
| Picture Credit score:
Sudhakara Jain
A break every within the first and fifth video games of the second set proved sufficient, and Nagal completed the job with a robust large serve on the advert court docket that Blancaneaux returned large.
Elsewhere, former World No. 17 Bernard Tomic wilted underneath the afternoon solar, crashing out 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to American Tristan Boyer. However the match’s different high draw, former World No. 25 Vasek Pospisil, lived to struggle one other day, coming by way of 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4 towards Ukraine’s Eric Vanshelboim.
Different outcomes (first spherical): Singles: Enrico Dalla Valle (Ita) bt Evgeny Donskoy (Rus) 6-2, 7-5; Luca Nardi (Ita) bt Dan Added (Fra) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(0); Coleman Wong (Hkg) bt Raphael Collignon (Bel) 6-4, 7-6(4); Seong Chan Hong (Kor) bt Tristan Schoolkate (Aus) 6-4, 6-3; Benjamin Bonzi (Fra) bt Philip Sekulic (Aus) 6-3, 6-2; Oriol Roca Batalla (Esp) bt Chun Hsin-Tseng (Tpe) 7-5, 6-3; Alexey Zakharov (Rus) bt Samuel Vincent Ruggeri (Ita) 6-2, 7-5; Maks Kasnikowski (Pol) bt Tung-Lin Wu (Tpe) 7-5, 6-2.
Doubles: Jakob Schnaitte & Mark Wallner (Ger) bt Sriram Balaji & Begemann (Ger) 3-6, 6-4, [12-10]; Bittoun Kouzmine & Maxime Janvier (Fra) bt Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta & Manish Sureshkumar 6-2, 7-6(8).
