Tokyo Olympics: Sumit Nagal beats David Istomin in 1st round, to face Daniil Medvedev next

23-year-old Indian tennis player, Sumit Nagal, became the first-ever Indian to win a singles match at the Olympics since Leander Paes in 1996, after defeating Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin 6-4, 6-7 and 6-4 in a very hard-fought match in the first round of the men's singles tennis. The odds seemed to be in the favour of Istomin going into the match but Nagal was not going to let this chance slip away after he qualified just over a week ago owing to large scale withdrawals from the men's singles draw.

Strong first set win

The match started with both the players holding their serve, which was a little bit of a surprise in the case of Nagal who's serve has been a weak point before. Nagal was close to breaking the Uzbekistani's serve at 2-3 but he held on with a powerful set of serves. In the ninth game, Istomin looked to break Nagal's serve with three break point chances but he did well to hold on to his service and grabbed the game with a forehand to send Istomin far wide. Nagal had the chance to apply pressure on Istomin who was serving to stay in the match and the former took it, he rallied ahead with two breakpoints and this time he made sure he buried his shot well to win the first set.

Istomin makes a strong comeback

In the second set, Nagal did so well to break Istomin at the beginning of the second set to take a 2-0 lead. He carried forth that moment and broke the Uzbekistani again after he had a back and forth game going on. With Nagal 3-1 in the lead, he held onto his serve to make it 4-1 and then again 5-2 while saving three breakpoints. In the eighth game, Nagal was serving for the match but seemed a little nervous and Istomin lost in the tiebreaker.

Nagal fights against pressure and momentum to win the match

Istomin was back in the match and had momentum on his side with Nagal looking shaky in the first couple of games of the third set. Having lost the second set from 5-2, the pressure was all on the 23-year-old but he held on with sheer determination and power and fought through the third set to win 6-4 and move onto the second round.

Nagal won an incredible 10/10 of his points at the net and managed to hit eight aces.

In the second round, Nagal will go up against world number two Daniil Medvedev which is definitely a tough task for the 23-year-old, but again, the first-round match was also a very tough one.

(Image Credits: @sumitnagal - Twitter)