The headline is that Sumit Nagal defeated Adam Walton 7-5 6-2 in the quarterfinal of the Ḍafanews Bengaluru Open 2024. But the headline reflects very little about the context or the quality of the match. For starters, both Sumit Nagal and Adam Walton were coming off Challenger title wins the previous week; Walton in Burnie and Nagal in Chennai. For another, the match saw 148 points being played between the players, which is not particularly common for a 2 set match, but not very surprising either, given the number of deuces exchanged between the players, especially in the first set.

The match, which began late night in front of a small, but boisterous crowd in Bangalore, saw Nagal and Walton holding serves to make the score 1-1, after both players faced breakpoint opportunities. With the number of deuces exchanged in the first couple of games, you knew the crowd was in for some high quality tennis. Sumit held his serve, and had 3 breakpoint opportunities at 2-1 0-40 on Walton’s serve, all of which were saved by Walton, but Sumit broke Walton in that very game after a few exchanges of deuces. Sumit held his own serve to go up 4-1, but you could see the tiredness in his walk. After all, he was playing his 8th game in 12 days. It appeared that this fatigue had hampered Sumit’s game, as he was broken, to make the score 3-4, and match, back on serve. At 3-4, 0-30, the match was in a precarious position, and Sumit needed to regroup. And regroup, he did, holding his serve, while playing some mesmerizing forehands along the way. The players then held their serves to make the score 5-5, but on each occasion, the games went to a deuce. At the 5-5, 15-40, Sumit had yet another opportunity to break Walton, his 9th of the match, and Sumit grabbed the opportunity with a powerful forehand return on Walton’s second serve, leaving Walton on his knees. At 40-30, serving for the set, the net turned Sumit’s foe as the ball dropped slowly into Walton’s court, allowing for easy dispatch. But the very next point, the net turned into Sumit’s friend, as the ball bounced off the cord, evading Walton’s volley, and Sumit duly won the next point to win the first set 7-5.

The second was not nearly as dramatic as the first set. Of the 148 points in the match, only 48 points were played in the second set. Sumit displayed some fantastic exhibition of powerful forehands, leaving the crowd enthralled. Sumit won the second set 6-2, as Sumit broke Walton twice.

Sumit faces Stefano Napolitano in the semi finals, which is to be played on Saturday. The match could be a battle of fitness. Sumit will be playing his 9th match in 13 days, less than 24 hours of the quarter final contest, which ended at 10 30 PM local time, while Napolitano will be playing after a 3 hour epic quarter final, where he defeated Moez Echargui.

Ramkumar Ramanathan, the other Indian in the quarter finals lost a close match against S.C. Hong 5-7 7-5 6-4, but his performance this week, where he defeated the top seeded Luca Nardi, must give him much confidence in his singles game, as he looks forward to the ATP Challengers in Pune and New Delhi. His doubles game however, continued to impress, like his partner’s Saketh Myneni, as they continued their fantastic run to reach the final for the second week in succession. Ramkumar/Myneni defeated Alcantara/Uchida 6-2 2-6 10-7 in the semi final. They face the French duo of Janvier/Kouzmine in the summit clash, where Ramkumar/Myneni will be hoping to win their second successive title in as many weeks.