Rohan Bopanna advances to second round of Australian Open 2024, Sumit Nagal crashes out

The day has been of mixed bag for India in the Australian Open 2024. While Rohan Bopanna surged ahead for the 2nd round of the Australian Open 2024 along with his partner Matthew Ebden in the men’s doubles event, Sumit Nagal, unfortunately, had to be satisfied with a round one win, as he went down against Juncheng Chang of China in the 2nd round in men’s singles.

Nagal had made headlines after beating Alexander Bublik in the first round, becoming the first Indian player since Ramesh Krishnan in 1989 to win a Grand Slam men’s singles match. On the other hand, Rohan Bopanna had a good day in Melbourne with his Kiwi partner as he overcame the duo of James Duckworth and Marc Polmans in the 1st round of the tournament.

Nagal put in a great performance. Particularly in the first set, Nagal dominated and won it 6-2. Later in the match, Nagal was analyzed well by Chang who made inroads into the match with his performance. Bopanna had a stiff challenge with Ebden against the Kiwi duo. Right from the 1st set, the India-Kiwi duo had to fight for their points. The first set went to the tie breaker.

Rohan Bopanna wins thrilling match in the first round

In the tie breaker, Bopanna and Ebden defeated the Kiwi duo 7-6(7-5) to clinch the set. In the second set, the Kiwi duo made a comeback and won it 6-4 to stay alive in the match. Sumit Nagal had a stiff challenge in the third round. At one point, the score was 5-5. But the Chinese athlete clutched to win both the games of the set to win it 7-5, which gave him the momentum.

The third set of Bopanna turned out to be thrilling. Even that went to the tiebreaker. However, Bopanna and Ebden overcame the Kiwi duo with relative ease by winning the tie breaker 10-2. In the process, the duo qualified to the 2nd round. Nagal lost to Chang in the 4th set after losing it 4-6. Although the 26-year-old lost the match, the fans were impressed with him.