Chennai Open: Sumit Nagal rolls into semifinals

Chennai, February 17

India’s Sumit Nagal continued his good run in the Chennai Open ATP Challenger tournament, beating Jay Clarke of Great Britain 6-1 6-4 today to enter the singles semifinals here.

The world No. 506 won the quarterfinal in an hour and 22 minutes to set up a last-four clash against American Nicolas Moreno De Alboran.

Alboran, who ousted top seed Chun-Hsin Tseng in the second round, got the better of Japan’s Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-3 6-4 in one hour and 25 minutes.

The Nagal-Clarke match saw the Indian dominate the first set completely. Serving superbly, the 25-year-old Indian kept the Briton on his toes with precise hitting. He never faced a break point and landed 81 per cent of his first serves to pile pressure on Clarke and break him thrice.

In the second set, Clarke raised his game but a single service break enabled Nagal to grab the set and match.

Meanwhile, Max Purcell beat No. 2 seed James Duckworth 6-4 4-6 6-4 in a battle of Australians to set up a clash against compatriot Dane Sweeny in the semifinals.

In the doubles section, Sebastian Ofner and Nino Serdarusic shocked top seeds N Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 4-6 7-6 10-4 in the semifinals.

India’s Arjun Khade teamed up with Clarke to beat the Czech team of Petr Nouza and Andrew Paulson 7-5 4-6 10-8.