 "Sumit Nagal")
India's Sumit Nagal broke 18th seed Russian Karen Khachanav once, but in a less than two hour affair, the latter to finished the match 6-2, 6-0, 7-6 at court 7 in the French Open Round 1 on Monday, May 27 in Paris.
The match was interrupted by rain when Khachanov was leading 2-1 in the first set. However, after that, there were no disturbances and the Russian pro made no mistakes at all, winning the game easily.
Ranked 95th Nagal started off well as he held on to his first serve. However, in the second set, he was unable to hold any of his serves and lost the second round rather too meekly.
In the third set though, Nagal held on to his first serve and pushed the second game to 40-all before the Russian took it on advantage. He was broken in his second service game. However, the Indian broke Khachanov for the first time in the 10th game of the third set to make it 5-5.
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Despite holding on to his rest of the service games, the Indian eventually lost the third set 6-7 in the tie-break and the match in three straight sets 2-6, 0-6, 6-7 to bow out.
Grandslam debut for Nagal
It was a Grand Slam debut for the 26-year-old Indian who had previously lost out in the qualifiers of many Grand Slam tournaments. He became the first Indian after Prajnesh Gunneswaran in 2019 to play in the French Open Men's Singles.
Other Indian interests in the French Open
The Australian Open winning pair of Rohan Bopanna and his Aussie partner Matthew Ebden have been seeded second here. Apart from Bopanna, Yuki Bhambri will also be plying his trade in the Men's Doubles with Frenchman Albano Olivetti.
