Nagal beats top seed Clarke in Tampere
India’s No.1, Sumit Nagal, pulled off a big win at the ATP Challenger 75 event in Tampere, Finland, defeating top seed Jay Clarke of Great Britain 7-6(4), 6-1 in the opening round. The two-hour clay court battle saw Nagal outlast Clarke in a tight and topsy-turvy first set before dominating the second.
The strongly-built Clarke, ranked 200 and a recent clay Challenger champion in May without dropping a set, couldn’t keep up with the Indian’s strong baseline play on clay. With this win, Nagal improves his head-to-head record against Clarke to 5-0.
Nagal, currently ranked 306, had earlier entered the main draw as an alternate and will now face the winner of the match between Max Houkes (ATP #288) and Finnish wildcard Vesa Ahti (#1142) in the Round of 16, likely on Thursday.
