New Delhi: India’s Sumit Nagal has achieved a career-best ranking of world No. 68 in tennis in the men’s singles category.
The 26-year-old Indian tennis player climbed five spots in the latest ATP rankings released on Monday, moving past former world No. 71 Sashi Menon to become the fourth highest-ranked Indian man since 1973.
Only Vijay Amritraj (ranked 18th in 1980), Ramesh Krishnan (ranked 23rd in 1985) and Somdev Devvarman (ranked 62nd in 2011) have been placed higher than Sumit Nagal in the ATP men’s singles rankings.
Ranked 138th in January 2024, Nagal has been in impressive form this year. He won the Chennai Open, an ATP Challenger event, in February to break into the top 100 for the first time in his career.
After his second ATP Challenger title, the Heilbronn Neckarcup in Germany, Nagal rose to world No. 77 in June. A week later, he finished runner-up in the ATP Challenger event in Perugia, Italy.
Sumit Nagal has also featured in three Grand Slams in 2024 – Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.
He stunned 31st seed Alexander Bublik in straight sets at the Australian Open, becoming the first Indian male player in 35 years to beat a seeded player at a Grand Slam.
At Roland Garros and Wimbledon, however, Nagal exited the men’s singles competition in the first round. Notably, he was the first Indian player in five years to play a Wimbledon men’s singles main draw match.
Nagal was rewarded for his consistency in the first half of the year as he obtained a Paris 2024 Olympics quota for the men’s singles event.
Sumit Nagal will make his second Olympic appearance, after Tokyo 2020, making him only the second Indian player to feature in consecutive men’s singles draws at the Summer Games.
Leander Paes, an Olympic bronze medallist, had contested in the men’s singles competition at the Olympics three times in a row between 1992 and 2000.
Nagal, however, will play in the Swedish Open before travelling to Paris.
Rohan Bopanna and N Sriram Balaji, meanwhile, will take the court in the men’s doubles competition at the upcoming Olympic Summer Games.
The 44-year-old Bopanna stayed as the world No. 4 while Balaji climbed two spots to rank 62nd in the latest men’s doubles rankings.