Tennis: Sumit Nagal loses tough three-setter to Holger Rune to exit Monte Carlo Masters

Sumit Nagal enforced a deciding set against world No 7 Holger Rune before losing his Round of 32 match to exit the 2024 Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday.

The Indian lost 3-6, 6-3, 2-6 in an encounter that took two days to complete after the match was stopped on Wednesday night due to inclement weather.

Coming into the match on Thursday, Nagal was trailing 3-6 and 1-2 in the second set. But the Indian brushed off the dust and managed to recover to break Rune’s serve and force the match into a deciding set by taking the second set 6-3.

Nagal then ended up dropping his serve in the second game of the final set, but broke back immediately to get things back on level terms after holding his serve to make it 2-all. However, Rune then ended up winning the next four games with relative ease to close out the 2-hour 11-minute match.

Earlier on Wednesday, top seeds Rohan Bopanna along with his Australian partner Matthew Ebden also crashed out in the second round of the men’s doubles.