India’s Sumit Nagal had made a dream start to his Grand Slam career.
In his first ever match at a major, the 22-year-old from Jhajjar in Haryana beat 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer 6-4 in the first set of the opening round at the US Open.
However, the World no 190 could not ruin Federer’s perfect record in first rounds of the US Open, going down 6-4, 1-6, 2-6, 4-6 against the five-time winner on Tuesday, 27 August. The 38-year-old from Switzerland extended his lead to 19-0 in the opening round of the championship.
Nagal has become only the fifth Indian player to feature in a Grand Slam singles main draw in this decade. Somdev Devvarman, Yuki Bhambri, Saketh Myneni and Prajnesh Gunneswaran are the only ones who have played at Tennis Majors.
When that first set ended, there were plenty of people looking on in disbelief – in Federer's guest box, certainly; around the stands, of course; and in front of TVs at home, surely.
"People expect a different result," Federer said. "I expect something else."
This was not, after all, Rafael Nadal, someone Federer has never faced at Flushing Meadows but trails 24-16 head-to-head overall.
Instead, it was Nagal, who is now 0-5 in tour-level matches for his career, trailing Federer by 1,224 victories.
“It would have been a better story if I had got another set or more.”Sumit Nagal
Federer was a big part of what transpired in the early going: Of the 32 points Nagal won in the first set, only three arrived via his own winners. Of the other 29, 19 were thanks to unforced errors by Federer, and another 10 were forced errors off the Swiss star's racket.
“He loves putting pressure on the other guy. The thing with him is you don’t know what type of shot (he’ll play). He’s always making you think. ... You have no idea where the ball is coming back.”Sumit Nagal
Nagal stunned the crowd by breaking Federer's serve in the third game with the Swiss committing a double fault on the second breakpoint.
While a "rusty" Federer was still measuring up his newest rival, Nagal, with his deep returns, was setting up winners – some eye-catching inside-out forehands.
While many would not have expected such a sight, Nagal further shocked the crowd when he broke Federer for the second time and served out the set after being down 0-30.
Hitting deep returns and going for his shots fearlessly and not allowing Federer to come on to the net were key to Nagal's first-set exploits even as the Swiss struggled to contain his unforced errors.
Federer had 19 unforced errors to 9 of Nagal in the opener.
The anticipation grew but Federer shook off the rustiness to dismantle Nagal's game after that.
He began serving well, if not his best, and dictated the play with his strong returns, killing points at will at the net.
In no time, he zoomed to a 5-0 lead in the second set and served it out in the seventh but not before Nagal had saved six set points and also earned two break chances.
Nagal was still fighting but Federer was too hot to handle.
The pattern remained the same in the third and fourth sets with Nagal getting a good point here and there but it was largely one-way traffic.
The 20-time Grand Slam Champion came out to serve the match in the 10th but was down 0-40 with Nagal making some solid returns.
After saving five breakpoints, Federer closed the match with a strong serve on Nagal's backhand.
After fighting hard for two hours and 25 minutes, Nagal had earned some fans and he walked out of the Arthur Ashe Stadium signing a few autographs and to a loud applause.
While Prajnesh was also knocked out in the opening round, this US Open was the first time since 1998 when two Indian players were in the Grand Slam main draw. In the previous instance, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had competed at the Wimbledon
Nagal came into the US Open qualifiers confident, backed by terrific results during the clay court season.
(With inputs from AP and PTI)
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