India’s challenge at the ongoing ATP Challenger Prague Open came to an end after all the three players — Sumit Nagal, Divij Sharan, and N Sriram Balaji — suffered defeats in their respective singles and doubles matches.
Top-seeded Sharan and Robin Haase lost their quarterfinal clash 3-6, 6-7(8) to Jiri Lehecka and Tomas MacHac on Thursday, thus bowing out of the competition.
In another match, Balaji and his partner Kimmer Coppejans also suffered a straight-sets defeat in their last-8 clash as they went down 4-6, 3-6 to Steven Diez and Blaz Rola.
Earlier in the day, Nagal suffered a 6-2, 0-6, 1-6 defeat to world no. 17 Stan Wawrinka to bow out of the singles event.
Nagel, who faced Wawrinka’s illustrious fellow countryman Roger Federer at the 2019 US Open and took a set off him as well, had the upper hand in the first set but could hardly compete in the second and third.
“It was a tough start again,” said Wawrinka after the match as per the ATP Tour website. “I was not feeling the ball very well and it was flying a lot on me. Again, it’s good to win another match, and to do it in three sets gives me more time on the court. It’s all positive.”
Nagal, who then featured in the doubles quarterfinal with his partner Belarusian Ilya Ivashka, lost 2-6, 4-6 to Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Arthur Rinderknecht.
