India number one tennis player, Sumit Nagal will be facing three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka in the Prague Open quarter-final.

This is following his come back win over lower-ranked Kiri Lehecka. Nagal, who is the sixth seed and world number 127 battled hard to win 5-7 7-6(4) 6-3 during two-hour and 21-minute in the second-round contest against the local player, who is ranked 617 in the world.

It could be recalled that the top Indian tennis player had played multiple Grand Slam winner, Roger Federer at the US Open last year, and got one set against the Swiss.

To face another grand slam winner is another test to his game. He had some weeks ago claimed to have added some thig s to his game. Wawrinka had rallied to beat Germany’s Oscar Otte in the second round of the competition, winning from behind 3-6 7-5 6-1 in one-hour and 54-minute.

Nagal had reached the second round of the competition through the challengers pre-quarterfinals after his opponent Jay Clarke of Britain retired hurt on Monday.

The Indian was leading 6-3, 5-7, 4-1 before Clarke decided to quit in the second round match after playing for over two hours.

This is Nagal’s first competitive match since his Davis Cup encounter against Croatia’s Marin Cilic in March.

He got into the tournament after receiving a bye in the opening round.

The Prague Open going on in the Czech Republic is the Euro 137,560 clay-court event.

Meanwhile, the top-seeded Indo-Dutch combo of Divij Sharan and Robin Haase also advanced to the quarter-finals in the doubles draw, winning 6-3 6-2 win over Jonas Forejtek and Michael Vrbensky.

N Sriram Balaji, another Indian also advanced to the doubles quarterfinals. He was paired with Belgium’s Kimmer Coppejans, and they overcame Andres Molteni and Hugo Nys 7-5 4-6 10-6 in their round of 16 match.

 
Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed