Gritty Nagal qualifies for Aus Open main draw

Sumit Nagal. Pic/Getty Images

India's Sumit Nagal on Friday entered the singles main draw of the Australian Open with an easy win over Slovakia's Alex Molcan in the tournament's qualifying final here.

Nagal cruised past Molcan 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and three minutes, and won the match after his opponent double faulted at 30-40 in the 10th game of the second set. Nagal will now face Kazakhstan's World No. 31 Alexander Bublik in the first round.

Currently World No. 139 in singles, this is Nagal's second main draw appearance in the season's first Grand Slam after his entry in 2021.

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Nagal went down to Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis in the opening round 2-6, 5-7, 3-6 that year. Nagal had also made it to the US Open main draw in 2019 and 2020. In 2019, Nagal had stretched legendary Roger Federer to four sets at the Flushing Meadows before losing 6-4, 1-6, 2-6, 4-6.

However, a year later, the Indian managed to enter the second round of the season's final Grand Slam beating host nation's Bradley Klahn in the first round 6-1, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

But Nagal went down to second seed and eventual champion Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 in the second round.

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