Sumit Nagal in motion towards Geoffrey Blancaneaux in the Bengaluru Open 2024 on Tuesday, February 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Sudhakara Jain
Sumit Nagal made a assured begin to his dafaNews Bengaluru Open marketing campaign, beating France’s Geoffrey Blancaneaux 6-2, 6-2 at the KSLTA courts inside Cubbon Park right here on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old, who broke into the ATP high 100 after final week’s triumph in Chennai, is a former champion in the Garden City, having gained the Challenger in 2017. And the World No. 98 performed like he knew the circumstances like the again of his hand.
Bengaluru’s altitude doesn’t actually support flat and aggressive stroke-making, and Nagal, thus, hit with excessive net-clearance and at the identical time imparted sufficient spin to pull the ball again in and maintain it in play.
There have been no brief balls for Blancaneaux to assault, and the depth was such that he was largely pinned a very good two toes behind the baseline. Nagal broke in the first and seventh video games of the first set and took it 6-2 when Blancaneaux despatched a backhand lengthy.
In the second stanza, Blancaneaux tried to hit by the courtroom, charged in from time to time and even took up aggressive courtroom positions at instances to rattle Nagal. But the Indian, cheered on by a sizeable crowd revelling in the cool night circumstances, was as much as the process, forcing the Frenchman to chop an exasperated determine.
Sumit Nagal in motion towards Geoffrey Blancaneaux in the Bengaluru Open 2024 on Tuesday, February 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
Sudhakara Jain
A break every in the first and fifth video games of the second set proved sufficient, and Nagal completed the job with a robust large serve on the advert courtroom that Blancaneaux returned large.
Elsewhere, former World No. 17 Bernard Tomic wilted below the afternoon solar, crashing out 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to American Tristan Boyer. But the match’s different high draw, former World No. 25 Vasek Pospisil, lived to battle one other day, coming by 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4 towards Ukraine’s Eric Vanshelboim.
Other outcomes (first spherical): Singles: Enrico Dalla Valle (Ita) bt Evgeny Donskoy (Rus) 6-2, 7-5; Luca Nardi (Ita) bt Dan Added (Fra) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(0); Coleman Wong (Hkg) bt Raphael Collignon (Bel) 6-4, 7-6(4); Seong Chan Hong (Kor) bt Tristan Schoolkate (Aus) 6-4, 6-3; Benjamin Bonzi (Fra) bt Philip Sekulic (Aus) 6-3, 6-2; Oriol Roca Batalla (Esp) bt Chun Hsin-Tseng (Tpe) 7-5, 6-3; Alexey Zakharov (Rus) bt Samuel Vincent Ruggeri (Ita) 6-2, 7-5; Maks Kasnikowski (Pol) bt Tung-Lin Wu (Tpe) 7-5, 6-2.
Doubles: Jakob Schnaitte & Mark Wallner (Ger) bt Sriram Balaji & Begemann (Ger) 3-6, 6-4, [12-10]; Bittoun Kouzmine & Maxime Janvier (Fra) bt Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta & Manish Sureshkumar 6-2, 7-6(8).
