Sumit Nagal: Winning amid pandemic is no luck

22-year-old Indian tennis player, Sumit Nagal, has said it is not by luck that he was in Germany before the lockdown order due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Nagal, who hails from Haryana, was doing what he knows how to best when the lockdown order was issued while he was participating and winning a tennis tournament. During this period, the rest of his colleagues had gone on break.

Nagal, India’s number one player, played during the two and a half months break at the Nensel Tennis Academy in Peine, Germany, and eventually won a club tournament on Sunday. He won the tournament by defeating 250th ranked German Daniel Masur in two straight sets (6-1, 6-3) in Pinneburg.

Speaking with TOI, the young lad lauded Germany’s system, which people followed, as normalcy gradually returned.

While noting that Germany is his base, Nagal said there are so many different things there that don’t work with luck but things working in one’s favour, and sometimes against such person.

Describing his play as awesome, Nagal, who is 127th in the world sad based on the present circumstances, said the little opportunity to play in a tournament far away from his country was nice.

Nagal is also pleased with the court because he played on his favourite surface, under the tutelage of his coach, Sascha Nensel and Milos Galecic as his trainer.

The Indian number one said it was a great competition because he had to test what he has been working on in the tournament.

As he continues to see how things were going, Nagal noted that he wasn’t playing very high (ranked) ATP players, admitted playing very comfortably. He however, said he did his things, and all worked out very well, and he is excited about it.

Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed