India’s Sumit Nagal features in the men’s singles entry list for the Paris 2024 Olympics, as announced by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) on Thursday. This will mark Nagal’s second Olympic appearance following his participation at Tokyo 2020, where he won his opening match against Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin but was subsequently defeated by Daniil Medvedev in the second round.
The men’s and women’s singles events at Paris 2024 will each include 64 players. The top 56 eligible men’s singles players, according to the ATP rankings released on June 10, secured quotas for their countries, with each country allowed a maximum of four quotas. Although Sumit Nagal was ranked 77th—a career-high for him—when the qualifying window closed, he made the cut due to the limitation of four players per country and multiple withdrawals, which favored his entry.
Nagal, who was ranked 138th in January, has demonstrated remarkable form throughout the year. He entered the top 100 for the first time after winning the Chennai Open earlier this year. Ranked 95th in the singles tennis rankings just a week before the qualifying window ended, Nagal made a significant leap of 18 places following his crucial ATP Challenger title win at the Heilbronn Neckarcup in Germany, securing his place in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Joining Nagal in the Indian Olympic tennis team is Rohan Bopanna, who will partner with N Sriram Balaji in the men’s doubles competition at Paris 2024. Bopanna was ranked world No. 4 in the men’s doubles rankings when the qualifying window closed, easily making the cut. Each doubles event at the Paris Olympics will feature 32 teams, with a maximum of two teams per country. The first to qualify were the top 10 players in the doubles rankings, provided they had an available partner within the top 300 of the doubles rankings.
Consequently, Bopanna selected Balaji, who was ranked 67th. The All India Tennis Association (AITA) confirmed the entries of Bopanna and Balaji on June 19. Currently, both players are competing in the Wimbledon 2024 Grand Slam event in London, with Bopanna partnering Australia’s Matthew Ebden and Balaji teaming up with Great Britain’s Luke Johnson. Following Wimbledon, Bopanna and Balaji are set to compete in the ATP 500 events in Hamburg and Umaag before heading to Paris.
Meanwhile, Sumit Nagal also competed at Wimbledon but was eliminated in the opening round in both singles and doubles categories.
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