New York: India's Sumit Nagal moved a step closer towards making the main draw of the 2019 US Open. The 22-year-old beat Canada's Peter Polansky 7-5, 7-6 in two hours and five minutes in the second qualifying round to set up a clash against Brazil's Joao Menezes in the final qualifying tie.
Nagal raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set but Polansky managed to break back to make the score 3-2. Polansky would break again in the 7th game but Nagal broke back in the 8th and 12th games to take the set.
The second set followed a similar pattern with Nagal taking a 3-0 lead before Polanski fought back. However the Indian once again kept his cool to take the set and the match on Thursday.
Nagal, ranked 190th in the world and facing the lower-ranked Menezes, will on Friday have a chance of becoming the fourth Indian in the last six years to make it to the main draw of a Grand Slam. He will also be the second Indian alongwith Prajnesh Gunneswaran, whose world ranking of 89 gives him an automatic seeding in Grand Slam events, to be in the main draw of the 2019 US Open.