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Indian tennis star Sumit Nagal made his way to the second round of the men’s singles at the Australian Open 2024 Qualifiers. Nagal demonstrated dominance over France’s Geoffrey Blancaneaux in the first round of the qualifiers on January 10, Wednesday. It took the 26-year-old an hour and 46 minutes to take down his French opponent with a scoreline of 6-3, 7-5 on Court 8. In the game's opening set, Nagal was in command after gaining a 4-1 lead over his counterpart.
The Indian went on to comfortably seize victory in the first set despite Blancaneaux's effort. The second round saw the Frenchman giving a tough competition to Nagal through his resilience and took the set to a 5-5 deadlock. However, Nagal broke his rival’s serve and went on to seal a victory in the set as well as the match. Nagal put on an impressive performance with his first serves and won 84 percent of his points.
Nagal, who is currently ranked at 122nd spot in the world rankings will now face Australia’s wildcard entrant Edward Winter on Thursday, January 11. Earlier in 2021, Nagal played in the main draw of the first Grand Slam of the year but ended up losing the first round 2-6, 5-7, 3- to Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania.
On the other hand, India’s Ankita Raina secured her berth in the tournament's second round by taking down Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in a three-set thriller on January 9 . The 30-year-old took to beat her rival 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (10-4) on Court 11. In her second-round clash with Czech Republic’s Sara Bejlek, Ankita faced a 6-1, 7-5 defeat and crashed out of the tournament.
