India’s top singles tennis player Sumit Nagal has made it to the finals of the Helsinki Challenger after beating Stefano Travaglia in straight sets 6-1, 6-4 on Saturday. With this, Nagal is set to enter the top 150 of men’s singles ranking once again.
The current world no. 169 Sumit Nagal will take on Corentin Moutet of France in the final of the event on Sunday. What was heartening to see that Nagal managed to get past his nemesis Travaglia, without much problem, despite having a 0-4 head-to-head record against him.
As far as the Helsinki Challenger is concerned, Nagal has come up with heartening performances right from the start. In the quarters he beat local player Emil Ruusuvuori 6-3, 3-1, who is ranked 57th in the world currently. He got the better of 18-year-old Jakub Mensik, who recently made it to the third round of the US Open. And, he started the tournament with a win over D Novak in the first round.
ALSO READ: Rohan Bopanna at ATP Finals: When & where to watch, format & other details
Sumit Nagal in 2023
ALSO READ: India under pressure to travel to Pakistan after ITF rejects security concerns
If Nagal does manage to win the Helsinki Challenger, this will be his third title of the year. Earlier, he had won the Garden Open in Rome, where he beat the likes of Francesco Maestrelli, Fausto Tabacco, Max Houkes, and Joris de Loore. Then, at the Tampere Open in Finland, he beat Jiří Veselý, João Lucas Reis da Silva, Aziz Dougaz, Daniel Rincón, and Dalibor Svrčina, to lift the second trophy of the year.