Gritty Nagal loses to Serbian Troicki, bows out Tata Open Maharashtra Pune: Indiau2019s Sumit Nagal put up a strong fight before going down in three sets against Serbian Viktor Troicki in the menu2019s singles opening round at the third edition of Tata Open Maharashtra, here on Monday.
India number two Nagal, who took a set away against legendary Roger Federer during his debut Grand Slam match at 2019 US Open, showed immense resistance before going down 2- 6 7- 6 ( 7- 4) 6- 1 against the former world number 12.
Comeback man Cedrik- Marcel Stebe of Germany began his campaign with an impressive 6- 3, 6- 4 win over last yearu2019s runner- up Ivo Karlovic in his first round on the opening day at Balewadi Stadium.
Fifth- seed Yuichi Sugita also made his way into the second round with a convincing 6- 3 6- 0 win over Italian ace Thomas Fabbiano.
Stebe, 28, who has been plagued with injuries that forced him to skip almost all the action between September 2013 and March 2016, dominated the former World No. 14 in the first set. Karlovic, however, tried to gain some momentum with two points before the German wrapped up the set as well as the match. u201c My number one priority would be to stay healthy and keep myself away from any major injury. I started off a bit slow. I knew I want to focus on my game. That kept me going,u201d Stebe, who is making his first appearance here, said after the match.
Meanwhile in the doubles opening round match, Italian pair of Paolo Lorenzi and Stefano Travaglia made a winning start, defeating Lithuaniau2019s Ricardas Berankis and Russian Evgeny Donskoy 6- 3 6- 4.
The second day will see legendary Leander Paes in action.
PTI Serbian Viktor Troicki Indiau2019s Sumit Nagal
