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Sumit Nagal apologised for his heat-of-the-moment gesture after a match in Maia.
Sumit Nagal won in three sets. (PTI Photo)
India’s top-ranked singles tennis player Sumit Nagal has apologised to the crowd in Maia, Portugal, after making a talking gesture towards spectators following his dramatic first-round victory over home favourite Henrique Rocha at the Maia Open.
Nagal, who battled past the Portuguese player 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (5) on Monday, acknowledged that his reaction after the match was inappropriate and said he had also apologised to Rocha personally.
“To the crowd in Maia, I want to apologise for the talking gesture I made after the match. It was a heat-of-the-moment reaction, and it wasn’t the right way to respond,” Nagal wrote in an Instagram story.
“I respect everyone who came out to watch, and I appreciate you being there. I’ve also spoken to Henrique and apologised to him personally,” he added.
The Indian’s gesture, made after he sealed victory in a tense deciding-set tie-break, drew boos from the Portuguese spectators.
Rocha, the second seed and Portugal’s No. 3 player, had several opportunities to close out the contest in the final set but was unable to convert them, according to Portuguese tennis publication Raquetc.
The victory was particularly significant for Nagal, who had endured a difficult stretch of results before arriving in Maia.
The 29-year-old’s 2026 season was disrupted by hip and wrist injuries, which affected his ability to maintain consistency during the first half of the year.
However, he showed signs of a revival in June by winning the ATP Challenger 75 title in Târgu Mureș, Romania.
Nagal defeated France’s Felix Balshaw 6-3, 7-5 in the final to claim his seventh career Challenger title and his first since June 2024. He also reached the semi-finals of a Challenger tournament in the Czech Republic in August.
At the 2026 Asian Games, Nagal was India’s last remaining contender for a tennis medal before losing 4-6, 4-6 to China’s Yibing Wu in the men’s singles quarter-finals. India consequently finished the Games without a tennis medal, ending a run of podium finishes that had continued since 1990.
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Ask News18Sumit Nagal apologized after making an inappropriate talking gesture towards spectators in the heat of the moment following his tense first-round victory over home favourite Henrique Rocha at the Maia Open.
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Feroz Khan has been covering sports for over 12 years now and is currently working with Network18 as Principal Correspondent. He embarked on his journey in 2011 and has since acquired vast experience …Read More
October 13, 2026, 09:48 IST
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