The All India Tennis Association (AITA) refused to send Sumit Nagal’s nomination for a wildcard entry into the 2024 Australian Open after he opted out of the Davis Cup tie against Pakistan, a decision that has left India’s top-ranked singles player “really sad”.
Nagal had, for the 2021 Australian Open, received a singles wildcard reserved for a player from the Asia-Pacific region that put him straight into the main draw of the season-opening Grand Slam. For the 2024 edition too Nagal, who has risen from starting the year ranked outside the top 500 to currently being 138, could have been in fray for that Asian slot but AITA chose not to play ball. The national federation has to send an email to the Australian Open organisers nominating a particular player for the wildcard.
“Anil Dhupar (AITA secretary general) had called me and said he won’t send the nomination since I said no to the Davis Cup,” Nagal said on Monday. “To be honest, getting this call from him and hearing him say this was a bummer. I really hope things will get better in future or else tennis is going to die even faster in India.”
Last month, Nagal, along with Mukund Sasikumar, had pulled out of India’s Davis Cup tie against Pakistan scheduled in Islamabad in February 2024, leaving AITA unhappy. Dhupar said the federation had to take a stand against players who refuse to turn up to play for the country at any point in time.
“One cannot expect to pull out of a Davis Cup assignment for the country and then expect something in return from the federation. Why should we send anything from our end to nominate him? AITA had to take a stand against such things at some point,” Dhupar said.
Nagal, who played India’s Davis Cup World Group II home tie against Morocco on the hard courts of Lucknow in September and won both his singles matches in the 3-1 win, said his reasons for pulling out of the Pakistan tie were different.
“My opting out for Davis Cup (tie against Pakistan) was majorly because of it being played on grass,” he said. “It is really sad to see this decision coming after looking at my performance in Lucknow and securing the win for the country. I have missed Wimbledon for the same reasons as well in the past.”
No Indian singles player since Nagal (2021 Australian Open) has featured in the main draw of a Grand Slam. At the 2020 US Open, he became the first Indian male to win a main draw Slam singles match since Somdev Devvarman in 2013. Having reached a career-high world No. 122 in 2020 before a hip surgery dragged his rankings down, Nagal will have to go through the qualifying rounds in Melbourne next month for an entry into the 2024 Australian Open main draw.