File image of Sumit Nagar©Twitter
India’s budding tennis star Sumit Nagal’s progress and break into the top 100 will depend on his fitness and speed, feels Indian tennis legend Anand Amritraj. Nagal made headlines last month when she advanced to the Australian Open singles main tournament but lost in the second round. “Sumit Nagal’s progress will depend on his fitness and quickness because he cannot overpower too many people. He has to outlast them and score points.” , Anand told PTI on the sidelines of Davis Cup celebrations at the Madras Cricket Club here on Monday.
Anand, who is currently ranked 121st in the ATP Singles Rankings, hopes that Nagal will become a regular at Grand Slam tournaments and has backed him to break into the top 100 within the next six months.
“In the next six months he will be very close to breaking into the top 100 and that will give him a chance to play in Grand Slams regularly.” About his game, Anand said Nagal’s groundstrokes, forehands , praised his backhand but advised him to work on his serve.
“He was a reserve player on my Davis Cup team as captain in 2018. He was a very good kid with very good ground strokes, comparable to Somdev (Devvarman).”
“He doesn’t have a huge serve, but he’s very fast and consistent with both his forehand and backhand, so he’s a smaller version of Somdev. We’ll have to wait and see if we can do it.”
“I’ll be watching closely to see how well he improves. His serve needs to be bigger and he needs one finishing shot, probably a forehand,” he added.
“Nagal, Ramkumar and Sasikumar have the potential to be in the top 100.”
Besides Nagal, Anand has backed two more Indian players from Tamil Nadu, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Mukund Sasikumar, to break into the top 100 in the coming months.
While he praises Ramkumar’s serve, he feels the 29-year-old needs to improve his forehand and backhand.
“I would say the same about Ramkumar. His serve is big anyway. In addition to being more consistent from the backhand, he also needs to work on improving his first serve probability and working on his forehand to move the ball away. “Mukund Sasikumar is also very talented. There’s no reason why he can’t be a top 100 player. All three boys have the potential to be in the top 100, even if two have reached that level. But it’s a possibility.”It’s great for Indian tennis,” he concluded.
Ramkumar and Sasikumar, along with 26-year-old Nagal, are currently competing in the Chennai Open ATP Challenger.
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