France: One of the top Indian tennis player, Sumit Nagal, made a winning start to his campaign in Monte Carlo Masters, defeating the world number 63 Flavio Cobolli of Italy in straight sets in the qualifiers on Saturday. Nagal, an unseeded 95th ranked India registered a 6-2 6-3 win over eighth-seeded Cobolli, PTI reported.
In his final qualifier fixture, Nagal has to face the winner of the match between Facundo Díaz Acosta and Diego Schwartzman. The former is ranked 55th and seeded third, while the latter is ranked 124th and got a wild card entry in the tournament.
Players will be granted seven qualifiers for entry into the main ground.
Nagal has been making headlines since he reached the main draw of the Australian Open in January. There he had beaten Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan but bowed out in the second round.
He then won the Chennai Open before playing two more Challenger competitions, along with an ATP 500 competition (Dubai Championship) and two ATP 1000 Masters (Indian Wells and Miami).
After Chennai victory, Nagal reached the semi-final only once, which was in the Bengaluru Challenger.
In the Monte Carlo Masters, world number one pair of Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden (top seed) are going to compete.