Sumit Nagal suffers first-round exit at Australian Open 2025, Sabalenka, Ruud progress to 2nd round

India's top-ranked tennis player Sumit Nagal suffered a heartbreaking 6-3, 6-1, 7-5 defeat against the 26th seed Tomas Machac of Czech Republic in the first round of the men's singles at the Australian Open 2025 on Sunday.

India's top-ranked tennis player Sumit Nagal crashed out in the opening round of the Australian Open 2025 on Sunday, January 12. Nagal suffered a 6-3, 6-1, 7-5 defeat against Czech Republic's Tomas Machac in the first round of the men's singles at Melbourne Park.

The 27-year-old Sumit was the only Indian playing in the singles at the first Grand Slam event of the 2025 season. Nagal, who progressed to the second round at the Australian Open last year, went down fighting against the 26th-seeded Mahach.

Mahach, who enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2024, displayed his superiority from the beginning and took the first two sets without any resistance from his Indian opponent. Sumit produced a brilliant comeback in the third set and was leading 4-1 but he struggled to win breakpoints in the last set.

Playing against Nagal for the first time, Machach won 78% first-serve points and 7 for 15 break points. Nagal was also impressive with his serves later in the match but made 20 unforced errors and failed to register a single ace throughout the match which lasted for 2 hours and 5 minutes. 

Meanwhile, there were no major upsets on the opening day of the men's and women's singles at Melbourne Park. The defending champion Aryna Sabalenka defeated the former US Open winner Sloane Stephens 6-3, 6-2 to progress to the second round.

The Belarusian star is chasing her third successive women's singles title at the Australian Open and will face unseeded Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain in the second round. Last season's runner-up and the world no.5 Quinwen Zheng also registered an easy 7-6, 6-1 win over Anca Todoni to progress to the second-round on Sunday.