Sumit Nagal of India celebrates after defeating Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan in their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championships at Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia.
Late last year, India’s top-ranked singles player Sumit Nagal lamented being in the position that many on the brutal, unequal professional tennis tour were backed into after a few tough years. Making ends meet, training at the highest level, playing more matches, travelling with coaches, had all been a financial impossibility.
“If I look at my bank balance, I have what I had at the beginning of the year. It is 900 euros (around Rs 80,000),” he told PTI in September. “The funding needed to break into the top 100 is around one crore.”
