India's top-ranked men's singles tennis player, Sumit Nagal, found himself in a dark place in early June 2025. Standing in Lyon after a shocking first-round defeat at an ATP Challenger event, he could barely bring himself to look at his rackets. The 28-year-old had just been ousted in straight sets by France's Geoffrey Blancaneaux, a player he had never lost a set to in four previous encounters.
The Lyon Low and the Swiss Escape
The loss was a crushing blow. Nagal describes that period, which included back-to-back tournaments in Heilbronn and Lyon, as some of the worst tennis of his career. "I was playing such bad tennis. I was missing, making a lot of errors. I'm hitting the ball, but I don't know where it is going. It's the worst place to be for a tennis player. Lyon was rock bottom," Nagal recalled six months later in Bengaluru.
Sensing the internal turmoil, his coach Sascha Nensel intervened. He took Nagal's kit bag and instructed the struggling athlete to step away from the court completely. Heeding the advice, Nagal and his friend and physiotherapist, Yash Pandey, embarked on a 370-kilometre drive to the picturesque Swiss resort town of Interlaken.
For five days, the duo hiked through the serene trails of the Bernese Alps. The conversations were sparse but meaningful, and the physical exertion amidst nature's grandeur slowly began to lift the heavy weight of a disappointing first half of the year.
The Steep Slide and Its Consequences
The slump had severe professional repercussions. Nagal's ranking, which had soared to a career-high No. 68 during his best season, plummeted out of the top 300 in the latter part of 2025. This dramatic fall had a direct impact: for the first time in two years, Nagal, currently ranked No. 277, will miss the Australian Open starting January 18, 2026.
In the high-stakes world of professional tennis, where your ranking defines opportunities, the drop was a harsh reality check. "You are top 100, you don't play well and in four months you are 180," Nagal reflected. "Nobody likes to be 300 whatever. The tournaments are very different, prize money is different. The hardest part for me was that I wasn't playing at the level I wanted to play. The mental part too is a challenge; you struggle with motivation."
Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead
Nagal traces part of the struggle to a disrupted start to 2025, marked by a low-grade fever and an inadequate pre-season training block. He has now vowed to change his approach. "Going forward, I will do pre-seasons for four to six weeks, playing a maximum of one league, because that's what works best for my body and my game," he stated.
The athlete also admitted that some missteps stemmed from inexperience at his previous peak ranking. "This was the first time I was 68 in the world," he said, acknowledging missed opportunities in matches when he was ranked in the 80s or 90s. He now sees it as a crucial learning experience.
Known for his reliance on strong legs and all-court consistency, the 5'11" player believes he should have taken a break sooner when his mental focus first wavered. With a laugh, he even yearned for a simpler remedy: "I should have come home, for some love and ghar ka khana — mooli parathas, cheeni roti…"
His comeback trail officially begins next week, not in Melbourne for the Australian Open, but at the ATP 125 Challenger event in Bengaluru. This tournament marks the start of his 2026 campaign, where his primary goal is to reignite his journey back into the world's top 100 and reclaim his place among tennis's elite competitors.
