Sumit Nagal’s 2017 season is a story of two contrasting halves. The year started with controversy after his Davis Cup exclusion for indiscipline, followed by an almost six-month injury layoff. But the second half was headlined by the biggest title of his singles career so far, a gold medal at the Asian Indoor Games and a career-best ranking of 225 after climbing 96 spots.

Last week, the 20-year-old beat Jay Clarke 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to lift his maiden ATP Challenger trophy at the Bengaluru Open. En route, he overcame top seed Blaz Kavcic and top-ranked Indian Yuki Bhambri, who had claimed the Challenger in Pune just a week back.

However, Nagal admitted that his breakthrough week of tennis, winning five matches on the trot against much higher-ranked players, came as a surprise to him as well.

“When I came to Bengaluru, I never thought I’d hold the trophy. I was a match point down in the second round [againt Brydan Klein], cramping for an hour and trying to win the match somehow. And then to beat two people ranked around 100 and win the title, I didn’t think I could manage to it, to be honest,” Nagal told The Field.

“But I am very happy that I am finally starting to win those matches that I failed to win last year where I was up against some good players but failed to get the W [win],” he added, probably referring to the the Davis Cup rubber against Spain’s Marc Lopez. Making his debut at competition, the teen had played solid tennis to gain a lead but ended up losing the match after a medical timeout.

Remarkable comeback from injury

The injury woes continued from then up until May this year, with a torn labrum in his shoulder keeping him away from tennis for most of the year. The then 19-year-old chose rehab over surgery as spent his recovery period working on his fitness both in Germany where he trains, and in India where he worked with former India player Somedev Devvarman.

“From November to May I wasn’t playing much because of the shoulder rehab. There was not much for me to do, so all I did was train,” Nagal said. But the gamble to take a long layoff and recover instead of going under the knife paid off and he is playing much freer now, without any pain in his shoulder. In Bengaluru, he was accompanied by trainer Yash Pandey, who he has been working with since 2012, and worked on fitness and recovery, especially for the shoulder, in between matches.

“Being away for so many months, there are many things you lose out such as match awareness. So I played some Futures and got some wins which gave me the confidence as well as some points so I could compete at the Challenger level,” Nagal explained.

“It is wonderful to have two back-to-back Challenger tournaments in India. I wish we had more,” he added of the season-ending tourneys which give Indian players a chance to get crucial points ahead of a new season.

The 20-year-old forced a remarkable road to recovery playing on the Futures circuit. Before the season-ending Challenger tournament in India, the 2015 Wimbledon junior doubles champion, won four out of five Futures in a row and made the finals in five of the seven tournaments he played.

The manner in which he handled the challenges – from rehab to working his way up the Futures circuit to his giant-killing act at Bengaluru Open – is a sign of positive things to come.

Nagal is currently in China, competing in the Australian Open’s Asia-Pacific Wildcard Playoff in Zhuhai, China to get a chance to play at the first Grand Slam of the year. After that, he plans to take a few weeks off to train further and prepare for the upcoming season, which will begin at the Maharashtra Open, India’s only ATP tournament.

While he has set no specific goals for 2018, he will look to get more wins like the ones in Bengaluru and climb up the rankings. Already, Nagal is the youngest Indian player in the top 500 of the ATP rankings. And the way he played in the last week, he has shown his capability to go higher.

Only 20, and with the high-quality training and the backing of top Indian players like Davis Cup captain Mahesh Bhupathi, who is also his manager, and Devvarman, Nagal could be on the verge of a breakthrough season in 2018.