David Jorda Sanchis: India’s top-ranked player Sumit Nagal advanced to the second round of the men’s singles event of the Delhi Open 2026, which suffered a major upset as top seed Dane Sweeny of Australia was knocked out in his opening-round match by Kazakhstan’s Beibit Zhukayev.Nagal defeated David Jorda Sanchis of Spain to keep the local hopes alive on the ATP Challenger 75 event, now in its sixth edition, which is being held at the DLTA Complex in New Delhi, with the final scheduled for February 22, with 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams competing for the title.
Nagal, ranked No. 297 in the world, broke Spain’s Sanchis in the opening game of the first set and maintained his advantage to take it 6-3. The second set proved more competitive, with both players holding serve until the Indian secured the decisive break in the 11th game and served out the match 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 27 minutes.
“I’m really happy with the win. It’s my first win in Delhi. It’s long due in my tennis matches in Delhi,” Nagal said. “It feels great to play at home. It was an incredible crowd, and I look forward to playing on Thursday”.
Nagal’s win was the lone positive result in singles for the Indian contingent, with 18-year-old Manas Dhamne, qualifier Manish Sureshkumar and wildcard entrant Digvijay Singh all bowing out in their opening-round matches in close straight-set defeats.
Kazakhstan’s Zhukayev, ranked No. 292 in the world, produced the biggest upset of the tournament, as the 25-year-old came from a set down to beat top seed and World No. 134 Dane Sweeny 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-2.
The Australian had entered the tournament after a strong start to the 2026 season, having qualified for and reached the second round of the Australian Open, and won an ATP Challenger 75 title in Brisbane.
Second seed Rei Sakamoto progressed to the Round of 16 after defeating Chennai Open champion Frederico Ferreira Silva 6-2, 6-2 in the first round.
Great Britain’s Jay Clarke, the third seed, also advanced with a hard-fought 7-6, 6-4 win over Polish qualifier Maks Kasnikowski to register his first win of the season.
“Really positive. It’s the first match that I’ve won this year”, Clarke said after his win. “I’ve been playing great, especially at the back end of this year, and the results haven’t quite translated at the start of the year. But I’m really happy. Max is a quality player. I’ve played him before. I lost to him, I think, a couple of years ago. Hopefully, I can keep it going”
The 22-year-old Pole reached the semi-finals of the Chennai Open last week and had won two matches in qualifying this week to enter the main draw. Despite Clarke’s seeding advantage, the Briton was fully prepared for a difficult contest.
“There are very fine margins between, you know, me being seeded and Max, he was around 160 in the world last year or something like that. So now the margins are very small, especially with Max coming through qualities. Maybe he was a little tired today, but I don’t really look too much into seeding. It’s obviously nice to be seeded because it means that you’ve had a good year leading up to this tournament, but you know, you have to be ready, and there are no easy matches now,” he added.
Nagal will be aiming to become the first Indian singles winner at the Delhi Open since Somdev Devvarman, who remains the only home singles champion in the tournament’s history. Devvarman won back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015. India has also produced all-Indian doubles champions twice in the past, with Saketh Myneni/Sanam Singh and Yuki Bhambri/Mahesh Bhupathi lifting the trophy in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
As part of the ATP Challenger 75 series, the tournament will award 75 ranking points to the singles and doubles champions, 44 points to the singles runner-up, and 50 points to the doubles runners-up. The singles champion will receive $17,000 in prize money, with the runner-up earning $9,600. The doubles champions will split $4,980, while the runners-up will split $2,880.
Day 3 Results (till 6 PM IST)
Men’s Singles Main Draw – First Round
Beibit Zhukayev (KAZ) d. [1] Dane Sweeny (AUS) 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-2
[2] Rei Sakamoto (JPN) d. Frederico Ferreira Silva (POR) 6-2, 6-2
[3] Jay Clarke (GBR) d. [Q] Maks Kasnikowski (POL) 7-6, 6-4
[8] Rio Noguchi (JPN) d. [WC] Manas Dhamne (IND) 7-5, 6-4
Sumit Nagal (IND) d. [Alt] David Jorda Sanchis (ESP) 6-3, 7-5
Alastair Gray (GBR) d. [Q] Hyeon Chung (KOR) 6-0, 7-6 (6)
Petr Bar Biryukov d. [WC] Digvijaypratap Singh (IND) 6-3, 6-4
Dimitar Kuzmanov (BUL) d. [PR] Philip Sekulic (AUS) 6-4, 7-5
[PR] Ilya Ivashka d. [Alt] Sanhui Shin (KOR) 6-3, 6-3
Stefanos Sakellaridis (GRE) d. [Q] Manish Sureshkumar (IND) 6-4, 7-5
Article Source: IANS
