Nagal wins title at ATP Challenger, achieves career-best ranking of 135

Buenos Aires: Indian tennis player Sumit Nagal notched up a straight-set win over home favourite Facundo Bognis to claim the men's singles title at the $54,160

ATP Challenger Tournament here.

The 22-year-old from Haryana, seeded seventh, outclassed 8th seed Bognis of Argentina 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 37 minutes to win the title.

It was Sumit's second Challenger title of his career, following the triumph in the Bengaluru Challenger event in 2017. "Brilliant performance @nagalsumit and I extend hearty Congratulations on Winning ATP Buenos Aires Challenger Title. Sumit Nagal will enter Top 135 in Rankings!," Sport minister Kiren Rijiju wrote on his Twitter handle.

The talented youngster jumped of 26 spots to achieve a career-best ranking of 135 on Monday.

Last month, Nagal grabbed headlines after he made his Grand Slam debut and produced a spirited fight against the legendary Roger Federer in the first-round of the US Open.

With his fearless approach, Nagal impressed iconic Roger Federer at the US Open and then took it forward by making two finals on the Challenger circuit, but the youngster is flabbergasted that people are just "walking away" when he needs support.

However, the paucity of funds meant that neither he had his coach by his side nor the physio, who could help him recover from the gruelling matches on red dirt in the Argentinian city.

"I was all alone here. No one was with me to help out. One way, it has been great that I have been playing good tennis but it's not easy to do it and I'm really sad," Nagal said from Buones Aires.

"The path is lonely despite doing well at the US Open. I qualified at 22 and led a set against Roger Federer but it still has not made impact anywhere. It's really sad nobody is coming up to invest into tennis," he added.