100 Hours 100 Stars: Tennis conversation in India will revolve around Sumit Nagal - Somdev Devvarman

Former India tennis player Somdev Devvarman believes that the future of the tennis scene in India is quite bright and he picked Sumit Nagal as the talent to watch out for in the country. The 22-year-old Nagal surprised everyone with his performance in last year’s US Open where he won the first set against Roger Federer before going down 6-4, 1-6, 2-6, 4-6 to the five-time champion in the first round. The performance earned him a lot of praise from both experts and fans alike and Somdev believes that the tennis conversation in India will revolve around him.

Somdev also praised Ramkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran for their performances in the recent past and said that they will be instrumental in developing tennis in India over the next few years.

“In India, probably the most promising player right now is Sumit Nagal. He is 22 years old and last year, he took a set against Roger in the US Open. The tennis conversation in India is going to revolve around Sumit for some time now and probably Ramkumar. Prajesh has been doing quite well too and the singles conversation will revolve around these guys for some years,” Somdev said on 100 Hours 100 Stars, an initiative started by Fever Network.

On the international front, Somdev was asked to choose young talents whom he finds interesting and he took the names of Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas. “The excitement in global tennis is huge. Guys who are coming up right now like Medvedev and Tsitsipas are showing that the next gen is truly breaking through.,” he said.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced all the sportspersons to stay at home and with no sports activities, it has become a challenge to maintain their fitness. “I am lucky that I have a terrace at home and as it is fairly unused, we moved all the gym equipment to the terrace. We have everything you need in terms of fitness,” he concluded.