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Indian tennis star Sumit Nagal is on the verge of securing direct qualification to the forthcoming Paris Olympics 2024. Nagal is competing at the Heilbronner Neckarcup in Germany, which is the part of the ATP Challenger 100 event. Nagal is set to clash against world number 184 Alexander Ritschard of Switzerland in the finale of the tournament on Sunday, June 9. On Saturday, June 8, Nagal took down his French rival Luca Van Assche in straight sets 6-2, 7-6 (5) semifinal of the marquee event.
The Paris Olympics 2024 will have 64 players in the men’s singles event fighting for the ultimate title. Nagal is the only Indian who remains in the hunt for a direct qualification spot. The automatic qualification list for tennis will be out on Monday, June 10, where the top 56 players in the ATP rankings will qualify for the forthcoming marquee global tournament. However, there is a limit of four players per country.
Remaining eight of the 64 spots will be acquired by players from continental quotas, universality places and previous gold medalist as well as Grand Slam winners. Nagal, who is currently ranked 88 on the live ranking list will jump 11 spots to acquire 77th spot on the rankings. However, if he suffers a lose, his ranks will remain at 88. The 26-year-old though is on the luckier side as there is a maximum limit of four players per country.
Hence, if Nagal wins in the ATP Challenger final, he will get promoted to 56th spot in the Olympics ranking list, securing a direct quota. However, if he loses, he would be somewhere around 67th rank, that will put him out of direct qualifications. In that case, he would have to hope for other players’ withdrawal from the direct quota list.
