India’s Sumit Nagal advanced to the second round of the US Open qualifying with a solid straight sets win over a seeded player on Tuesday night.
The Indian world No 190 scored a 7-6(6), 6-2 win over Japanese 26th seed Tatsuma Ito in the first round of the Grand Slam qualifier.
Nagal lost his serve just once while converting three of his six breakpoints. The duo exchanged a break each in the first set before the Indian won it in the tiebreak and didn’t give up serve at all in the second.
Nagal will play Peter Polansky of Canada in the second round.
Nagal, who had pulled out of India’s Davis Cup squad for the tie against Pakistan next month citing injury, is playing his first match on hard courts after an extended clay-court swing in Europe.
On Monday, Ankita Raina had advanced to the second round of the women’s singles qualifying event, while Ramkumar Ramanathan had bowed out in the first round.