India's Sumit Nagal gave a mighty scare to three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka by taking off the first set but then wilted under pressure to bow out of the Prague Open in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
The 23-year-old Indian bagged the first set 6-2 in stunning fashion after breaking the Swiss heavyweight's serve to raise hopes of an upset win.
But it was not to be as the Indian, ranked 127, was overpowered by the world 17 Wawrinka who won the next two sets 6-0, 6-1 to pocket the match that lasted one hour and 19 minutes and advance to the semifinals.
Nagal had also taken a set off another Swiss star and multiple Grand Slam winner Roger Federer in the US Open last year before losing the match.
He had entered the quarterfinals of this Euro 137,560 clay court tournament following a 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-3 win over lower-ranked local player Kiri Lehecka.
Indian challenge over at Prague Open
The Indian challenge came to an end at the ATP Challenger Prague Open with the defeat of all three players competing in the doubles event.
Top seeded Divij Sharan and Robin Haase lost their quarter-final 3-6, 6-7(8) to Jiri Lehecka and Tomas MacHac on Thursday.
N Sriram Balaji and his partner Kimmer Coppejans were also defeated in straight sets, going down 4-6, 3-6 to Steven Diez and Blaz Rola.
Sumit Nagal, who lost to world number 17 and three-time Grand Slam winner Stanislas Wawrinka in the singles, also lost his doubles match to bow out of the tournament.
Nagal and Ilya Ivashka lost 2-6, 4-6 to Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Arthur Rinderknech.
It was the first competitive tournament for these three Indian players since the game was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic in March this year.
