Indian tennis star Sumit Nagal defeated local favorite Daniel Masur in straight sets to win the PSD Bank Nord Open in Berlin, Germany. Nagal won 6-1, 6-3 in the summit clash to win the title last week.
Nagal is the current top-ranked Indian in men’s singles with 127.
The event was its first competitive outing since March of this year when most of the sports world was stopped due to the coronavirus pandemic. Also read – Bihar News: Shocking! Groom wants to defer wedding, dies of COVID-19 two days later
“It felt good to be there after almost four months,” said Nagal. ESPN. “Just being in a tournament right now was unreal and cool. It was a nice little event with less than 60 players and not far from where I train (Nensel academy), so I thought to myself, hey, why not play some games?
Strict rules of social distancing and health measures were part of the tournament.
“Everyone had to stay at least two meters from each other. It is something that I had to constantly remember as well as frequent hand disinfection. Also, only two players could use the locker room at a time. As it was a small tournament, these aspects were much easier to manage, “he revealed.
Unclear on when the tennis season will resume, individual players, ranked outside the top 100 looks to an uncertain future when it comes to their financial condition.
Nagal is no different.
“I’ve been using my savings. There wasn’t much anyway, to be honest. But it is, I suppose,” he said.
He continued: “I agree with Somdev (Devvarman’s) suggestion that arranging loans for needy players may have been the smartest thing to pay players $ 2,000 or $ 4,000, which doesn’t change much in anyone’s life. There may be higher-ranking players who need the money more than someone who is a well-established low-ranking senior, obviously, no one is going to turn down free money. Tennis is a selfish sport and I suppose it will be. ”
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