India’s challenge in the men’s singles event of the Olympics came to a grinding halt with the exit of Sumit Nagal in round one at the Roland Garros here in Paris on Sunday.
Nagal was beaten by Frenchman Corentin Moutet 2-6, 6-2, 6-7 in what was a thrilling encounter.
Slow start
Nagal was slow to get off the blocks from the outset.
Buoyed by a boisterous home crowd, Moutet came out flying on all cylinders and the Indian was under pressure right away, having been broken in the very first game of the match.
Thereafter, it was all one-way traffic and the Frenchman pocketed the first set with relative comfort.
Resistance from Nagal
In the second set, Nagal appeared to find some sort of rhythm and engaged Moutet in lengthy baseline rallies.
Moutet repeatedly employed the drop shot to strong effect with Nagal constantly second-guessing.
But Nagal was equal to the task and with consistent hitting, drew errors from Moutet, who appeared to be fading.
And when the Indian broke the Frenchman for the second time to close the set 6-2, the game was all even stevens.
The finishing act
Going into the decider, Nagal’s serve was immediately under pressure.
Moutet had put the second set debacle behind him and was now back in the game.
His errors has disappeared and the long rallies were back, with the Frenchman now running Nagal ragged with his drop shots.
At one stage, Nagal was 5-4 ahead and Moutet had to hold serve to stay in the match, which he did.
Thereafter, Nagal’s serve was broken and with the crowd now cheering wildly, Moutet held serve to close out the third set 7-5.
The loss will be heartbreaking for the Indian, ranked World No. 80, who had put in a monumental effort to climb up the rankings to make the Olympics cut.