THE RISING WIMBLEDON CHAMP – SUMIT NAGAL
Young, ambitious and with a sparkle in his eyes, 18 year old Indian tennis player became the pride of the nation when he bagged the coveted boy’s double junior championship along with his Vietnamese partner Nam Hoanghy at the recently concluded Wimbledon tournament 2015.
Sumit Nagal garnered much praise nationwide and internationally too for his game, and has turned into a youth icon for Indian tennis enthusiasts who want to make it big in the world of tennis. Nagal with his doubles victory has registered his name in the golden book of history by being sixth Indian to have claimed the title.
Born in Jhajjar (Haryana) in 1997; ( i’m sure most of us are astonished at this detail, because he is either of our age or junior to us, no comparisons but curious case of detail), he had spent his childhood in the by lanes of West Delhi’s Nangloi, and has been consistently training himself in tennis since he was seven. He attended the government aided DDA coaching till the age of 10, post which something miraculous happened. And this miracle was none other than the boy being taken under the wing of tennis stalwart Mahesh Bhupathi who personally trained the boy calling him “our future”. It was like a heave of sigh for the humble family who found it increasingly difficult to fund the trainings for this expensive sport.
I am reminded of the famous dialogue from Taare Zameen Par..” he really turned the boy around”, the same sentiment is echoed by Nagal’s father who feels indebted to Bhupathi for helping his son chasing his dreams and accrediting Bhupathi’s guidance and his son’ s persistent hard work for the current laurels! Sumit Nagal surely is the future of Indian tennis, with a junior grand slam and now a Wimbledon’s boys double junior championship to his name, the boy has miles to go before he makes it to a top 100, from his current rank being 764.
Get set go! We as DU Times team wish this young champ a heartiest congratulations and hope that he rises to be among those in the top leagues of the play soon, for he has already joined ranks of Somdev Devvarman, Yuki Bhambri, other budding young talents of tennis !
