US Open: India’s Ankita Raina, Sumit Nagal, Ramkumar Ramanathan go down in first qualifying round

Three out of the four Indian tennis players in the qualifying draw of the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the year, went down in the first round after three-set battles on Tuesday night.

Ankita Raina, the only Indian in the women’s singles draw, lost to to Jamie Loeb 3-6, 6-2, 4-6. She made a comeback in the second set but was unable to hold on against a player ranked one place below her at world No 194. She made her Grand Slam debut in doubles at Australian Open and played both doubles events at Wimbledon, but is yet to play a singles match at a Major.

Sumit Nagal, who had made his Grand Slam debut at US Open in 2019 memorably against Roger Federer and won a match last year before going to down to eventual champion Dominic Thiem in second round, couldn’t get a direct entry into the main draw this year. The world No 165 went down 5-7, 6-4, 3-6 to the much lower ranked Juan Pablo Ficovich in two hours and 22 minutes.

Nagal had played in the Australian Open main draw early this year and had lost in the first round. He could not qualify for the French Open…

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