Sumit Nagal Exclusive: On finally feeling fit again, the 'Roger Federer experience', challenge of facing Daniil Medvedev and Dominic Thiem, and more

Every discussion or mention of Sumit Nagal in India is often automatically dominated by his famous match against the legendary Roger Federer, whom he stretched to four sets in the 2019 US Open first round. While there is no doubt about it being a stellar achievement as he became the first player from India to hand a scare to one of the all-time greats, that too at a Grand Slam tournament, Nagal wants to be remembered for more than just that one match.

After the highs of his match against Federer and his achievement at the Tokyo Olympics, something he is equally proud of if not more, Sumit Nagal experienced the lows of an almost career-threatening injury that halted his progress. Now close to his fittest self in years and raring to go again, the 25-year-old begins his 2023 season in his home nation's only ATP 250 event, the Tata Open Maharashtra.

In an exclusive and in-depth interview with Sporstkeeda, Sumit Nagal spoke about the experience of playing "magician" Roger Federer and the big hype around the match, and his 'one step at a time' approach as he aims to find his best again. The former World No. 122 also shared his views on how Indian tennis can produce more top singles players at the highest level, and his experience of learning what it takes to beat the best after facing the likes of Daniil Medvedev and Dominic Thiem, along with Federer.

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Exclusive interview with Sumit Nagal

Sportskeeda: Your recent hip injury was career-threatening and it came at the worst time as you had a good few seasons until then. How has it changed your mindset and your perception going forward? Does being out for that amount of time and recovering now give you a different perspective?

Sumit Nagal in action at the 2019 US Open. Sumit Nagal received a main draw wildcard for the 2023 Tata Open Maharashtra.

Sumit Nagal: My tennis trainer Milos (Galecic) has a very good saying. He says, “There’s no good or bad time for injuries, because if you get injured, you’re injured, and you’re losing weeks, no matter what.” And tennis is all about playing weeks because you’re playing so many weeks a year. Things can change in a week. You’ve seen enough, every tennis player has seen enough that one week can change anyone’s life. One great example is Denis Shapovalov, (Alejandro Davidovich) Fokina. If I sit and think now, there’ll be (Holger) Rune, (who) qualified for the US Open (2021) and played Djokovic, and from there to finish in the Top-10. It's incredible.

My goal stays the same. The only difference is to be healthy for the whole year, during the whole schedule, because the year I did it, I ended up from 400 to 120 (in the ATP Rankings), which was a very good year. Since then, I’ve not played.

2020, COVID happened. In 2021, I was only trying to figure out what to do with this hip. In 2022 also, half the year was gone, didn’t play and then I got injured again, and I got COVID twice. So it’s been a really tough two-and-a-half years. But as of now, the body is feeling good, I’m motivated to play. India is hosting three (ATP) Challengers in February, which is amazing. We don’t really get to see this, it’s been a long time since we’ve had three Challengers in India. Right now, the first two months are looking good.

Sportskeeda: After just coming out of such a big injury layoff, do you also want to take things one step at a time, as many players do?

Sumit Nagal: You have to, because when you don’t play for 6, 7, 8 months or whatever, your body acts weird. Especially when you come back from a joint surgery. If it’s a small surgery, it’s a bit different. So when I started playing, I thought it would be easier, to be honest. I was speaking to Somdev (Devvarman) a lot, and Somdev was like, ‘Man, take it step by step.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, don’t worry, it’s easy, I’ll come back.’

What you do in practice and what you do in a match is a completely different story. When I started playing tournaments, I was trying to play points and I said I don’t know how I’m running to my forehand. I lost every feeling towards my forehand. Somewhere around September was the first time in two years where I said to myself that this is probably the best I’ve ever felt in my career. That was two years later.

It (injury) came at the worst time, I was coming from an ATP 250 quarterfinal (2021 Argentina Open in Buenos Aires) and Top-25 wins. But if it was supposed to happen, there’s nothing I could do, you know. This pain came when I just walked out of a car and I stood and I felt something. I didn’t do anything stupid, I didn’t play a sport where someone just tackled me, it was random.

Sumit Nagal received a main draw wildcard for the 2023 Tata Open Maharashtra.

Sportskeeda: You’ve already reached an ATP 250 quarterfinal. Now you’re playing another ATP 250 quarterfinal in front of home fans in Pune. Do you have an expectation from yourself to reach at least a quarterfinal here in Pune?

Sumit Nagal: I think looking at rounds is not the right thing. If you’re playing well, anything is possible. My biggest goal will be to go there and enjoy myself in front of the people and do my best for every point and see where it goes. If I come out of the court saying I did my best and gave my 100 percent, there’s nothing to worry about.

You can’t win every match even when playing at 100 percent because there will be a guy who will play better tennis than you on the day, which is very normal in tennis. I’m looking to go there, play my heart out and give everything.

Sportskeeda: Since the US Open match against Roger Federer, a lot has been spoken only about that match and that one set you won against him. Do you sometimes, want to tell people that there’s more to you than that match and that famous set?

Sumit Nagal: To be honest, I don’t like it when people say it (a lot), you know. In the end, I lost the match. If I had beaten (Federer) it’s a different story. A loss is a loss. On our ATP website, it doesn’t say, ‘Sumit Nagal won the first set, but lost the 4th set. Wow, pity him.’ Yes, I don’t enjoy this as much. But in India, Roger is a very big guy and probably the most famous tennis player in India, and I was the only tennis player (from India) to ever win a set (vs Federer). That’s why it became a little bit big.

Sumit Nagal greets Roger Federer after their 2019 US Open match.

For me, one of the other biggest achievements that people don’t talk about is the Olympics. I was the only singles male tennis player from India to play the Olympics and to win a round in 25 years. And to beat someone who was the Asian gold medallist (Denis Istomin), he wasn't someone random. You don’t play anyone random in the Olympics main draw. And then to play Medvedev, who ended up becoming World No. 1 that year.

Sportskeeda: Even if it just one match each against Federer and Daniil Medvedev, did you come out of those matches with learnings that will stay with you for the rest of your career, just watching these big players and playing against them?

Sumit Nagal: When you play these big players, you learn a lot. When I played Thiem, I realized how important intensity is because his intensity is probably one of the highest, like Rafa’s (Nadal), you know. Every ball he’s there.

(Daniil) Medvedev, you realize how smart he plays. Maybe for ‘non-tennis players’, you can’t see this, but when he’s on the court, he’s like a doctor, you know. He knows what to hit, when to hit, and where to hit.

Federer, you can call a magician. You don’t know what is coming. That is one of the most annoying parts of playing against him that you have no clue. Is this guy going to hit a second serve and come to the net? Is he going for a short cross-court backhand? Or trying to make you (come) in. He has too many options, you know. You realize it but in the end, you also need to know what you are capable of and not capable of.

Sumit Nagal faced Dominic Thiem in the second round of the 2020 US Open.

Sportskeeda: You mentioned you want to take things one step at a time, but do you have any specific goals in mind for the entire season?

Sumit Nagal: When you’ve not played in these years, the biggest goal is only to play the whole season. I believe that if I play the whole season, if I play 30-35 weeks, I will do good things. I’m not worried about that. The only thing is to play 35 weeks.

Sportskeeda: Your thoughts on playing the ATP Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune?

Sumit Nagal: Hats off to them (tournament organizers). It’s not easy to host a 250 when tennis is not even a Top-3 sport in India, at this moment. They’re also hosting a Challenger in February. If we had more people who were more interested in tennis, we could have 15-20 Challengers a year. A guy asked earlier why we don’t have many players (at the top, globally). That's the reason we don’t. This is the first time we are having three Challengers in a row in the last seven years, you know.

Asia is the biggest continent but at the same time, Asia has the least tournaments. So it’s not easy to go from here to Germany every time, because it costs a lot of money. There are not too many people to cover your costs as well. So it gets tough. Half of the people who can’t play, can’t go abroad, can’t fly, why? Because there’s no money in your bank. Everything is so spread out in India that we don’t have one national center where things are going well.