In a player’s lounge at the Balewadi Tennis Stadium in Pune, Sumit Nagal described how a hip surgery took away from him the joy of competing on his favourite tennis surface. Clay courts demand a great deal of heart and legs from tennis players. For the dogged Indian, it’s a surface he’s been most comfortable on.

He runs tirelessly, wills himself to chase down everything he can, and then send it back with interest through that powerful forehand.

Yet he found himself weary of fulfilling that most basic requirement of a clay court when he returned after a hip surgery he underwent in November 2021 – sliding.

“One side of the brain was saying slide, the other side was saying I’m scared,” he had described to this publication in an interview in March.

On Sunday however, at the Tennis Club Garden in Rome, Italy, his mind was perfectly clear. He was ready to sprint the width of the court, play a shot on the slide, turn back and do the same over and over again en route to winning his first ATP Challenger title since 2019.

“I’m feeling happy. Winning a trophy is always nice. I was calm and relaxed after winning, but at the same time it gave me confidence as well,” Nagal said to Scroll hours after beating Jesper de Jong 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

“You always look for these titles when things are not going your way. And in the last few years, things didn’t. But we go step by step, week by week, you play your tennis and see how it goes.”

Remarkably, Nagal’s run to the title started in the qualifying rounds.

He’s currently ranked 347 – which is expected to go up to 254 once the ATP rankings are updated – which was enough for him to earn a qualifying round berth. In the opening round he beat Italian star Matteo Berretini’s younger brother Jacopo 6-4, 6-1, before pulling off an upset over second seed Viktor Durasovic 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 of Norway.

That earned him a spot in the main draw where he was to face fourth-seeded Italian Francesco Maestrelli. Nagal won that match 6-2, 6-4, and then picked up wins over Fausto Tabacco (6-3, 6-0) and Max Houkes (7-5, 6-0) in the second round and quarter-final respectively.

In the semi-final, he battled for two hours and 32 minutes against Belgium’s Joris De Loore, the eighth seed, before coming from behind to win 2-6, 7-5, 6-4. In the final he beat Dutchman de Jong to become the first Indian ATP Challenger singles winner since Ramkumar Ramanathan picked up the crown in Manama in 2021.

“It definitely feels good. The body was able to hold up after all these matches. It wasn’t my best tennis, but I was fighting very well, I was seeing things well, I was calm and trying to understand the match as much as possible,” Nagal said.

“I was a little bit nervous at (Championship) point, because I had not been there for a while. But I was ready to fight. Whatever happens, happens. I’m ready to fight the point.”

It’s a win that has helped the 25-year-old former Junior Wimbledon men’s doubles champion break back into the top 300 ATP rankings. Nagal, once ranked 122, had fallen to as low as 638 in October 2022 as he struggled to recover from a series of injuries, the hip surgery, and an untimely Covid infection.

Earlier this year though, he started to find his form and rhythm. In fact, he was the only Indian to win a main draw singles match during the Indian swing of three back-to-back Challengers in Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune – he reached the semi-final in Chennai followed by two second round exits.

But the current India No 1 has continued to believe in his game and the process. And his body has started to support him as well.

“The body is feeling fine, a bit tired, but no big problems,” he said when asked how he’s feeling physically after a gruelling week.

He claimed he will take a week off to recover before getting back to the grind of finding ways to climb back up the ranking ladder.

For now though, the man from Jhajjar will bask in the spotlight after conquering Rome.