Sumit Nagal Unbecoming Performance: Nagal has chosen to skip the Davis Cup on previous occasions. He performed it in India’s previous assignment, which was the World Group 1 playoff in Islamabad against Pakistan.
The Indian team’s failure to win a single set during their 0–4 loss to Sweden in last week’s World Group 1 Davis Cup match in Stockholm was the lone unexpected development. But there is a lot of very loud and startling noise surrounding this tie, with allegations and denials.
The fact that 29-year-old Sumit Nagal, who is ranked 82nd, bemoaned the lack of depth in Indian tennis in a podcast with his guru Somdev Devvarman has not gone down well.
It would have helped India’s chances if Nagal had played in Stockholm. He had only beaten Elias Ymer once this year on clay and had fallen twice to the top-ranked Swedish player, so there was still no guarantee. Hard court indoors was used for the Davis Cup tie.
The second-ranked player in India, Ramkumar Ramanathan, turned up and gave it his all; as former captain Mahesh Bhupathi so eloquently expressed it, Ramkumar plays for his country regardless of his form or mood.
Nagal has chosen to skip the Davis Cup on previous occasions. He performed it in India’s previous assignment, which was the World Group 1 playoff in Islamabad against Pakistan. But back then, under Zeeshan Ali’s coaching, Ramkumar and co. easily defeated Pakistan 4-0, hiding the shortcomings of Indian tennis.
Sumit Nagal Unbecoming Performance:
There was no thumping of the chest even when I pulled it off against the neighbor. On the other hand, Nagal claimed credit (during the podcast) for winning both of his matches and assisting India in securing the World Group 2 match against Morocco in Lucknow.
It is still the case that Nagal has only won four additional rubbers, two of which came against lesser-known Pakistani players in 2019 after Aisam Qureshi and Aqeel Khan declined to participate in Kazakhstan on neutral territory. Another triumph occurred in a dead rubber match over Norway. His lone noteworthy victory came in the World Group 1 playoff against Denmark last year, where he defeated August Holmgren in three sets.
Considering that Nagal was not selected by the AITA for this year’s Australian Open wild card, he might have had legitimate concerns. But as the head of selectors, Nandan Bal, put it so plainly, Nagal ought to have realized he was representing India, not the AITA.
The AITA decided to defend itself in the face of growing criticism, speculating that Nagal might have purposefully missed the Sweden match despite all the convincing. It was quite unworthy of Nagal, the top player in the nation, to criticize the Indian system before a game in which he appeared to be hurt.
