Sumit Nagal wins Tampere Open title, grabs 4th career Challenger trophy

It happens to be Nagal’s fourth ATP Challenger title in five outings, with this being his second crown this year, having won the Garden Open in Rome in April.

Nagal was off to a wobbly start to the match, losing his first serve game as Svrcina raced to a 3-0 lead and extended it to 4-1.

However, the Indian immediately regained his composure and broke back successively on three instances to send the Czech onto the backfoot, as the seventh-seeded Indian seized the opening set 6-4, thanks to some great play from the baseline.

Having shown composure in the latter stages of the opening set, Nagal started positively in the following set and broke Svrcina to race to a 4-1 lead. However, the fifth-seed Czech used his smartness and instantly broke back to have things back on serve. Regardless, the break wasn’t enough to trouble Nagal, as he upped his ante and re-broke Svrcina, eventually taking a 5-3 lead.

Svrcine was in no mood to go down without a fight, and engaged in some brutal exchange of shots during the Indian’s serve and broke back again for a glimmer of hope to take the match to the decider. But, it appeared to be that kind of day for Svrcina where he put his best, only to be quickly overpowered by Nagal.

At 5-5, Nagal broke Svrcine yet again, leading 6-5. Serving it out for the championship, the Czech engaged in some last-gasp power-hitting and saved three match points. Finally, he fell in the fourth match point, as the Indian closed the contest in an hour and 44 minutes.