India No 1 Sumit Nagal was knocked out of the 2024 French Open after a first-round loss to Karen Khachanov in Paris on Monday.
On his French Open debut, the Indian lost 2-6, 0-6, 6(5)-7 in the match that lasted 2 hours and 27 minutes.
There was a spot of rain before the match, but the encounter began without any delay. Nagal did well to save three breakpoints from 0-40, but an unforced error saw Khachanov break his serve in the third game of the opening set.
Rain then caused a 21-minute interruption and the world No 18 from Russia came back after the resumption, stronger than ever. Nagal wasn’t able to hold on to his serve as Khachanov won another breakpoint before serving for the opening set on his serve.
The situation wasn’t any better for Nagal in the second set. With the aim of bringing the fight to Khachanov, the Indian dropped his serve in the opening game and was unable to win a point in the entire second set. Although Nagal had two chances to break the Russian’s serve, he failed to close them out and Khachanov raced to a 6-0 win in the second set.
The third set saw both players pushed to the limit with Nagal breaking the Russian for the first time in the match to level it at five-games all. Both players then remained on serve to take it to a tiebreak. From leading 2-0 to leading 5-3, Nagal served a double fault and Khachanov closed out the match winning the final set 7-6(5).
