Sumit Nagal Vs Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg, Tampere Open 2025: India No. 1 Loses Semi-Final Clash

Indian tennis player Sumit Nagal missed on his first Challenger-level final of the season after going down fighting against Sasha Gueymard Wayenburg in the semifinals of the Tampere Open, on Saturday.

Ranked 306, Nagal lost 5-7 2-6 to his French rival, placed 57 places below him, in the clay court event.

At 5-5, 15-all, Wayenburg hit a forehand wide and long and followed that up with a forehand errors to hand the Indian two breakpoints.

Wayenburg began to hit deep in the corners to open up the court for winners.

He saved the first breakpoint with an overhead smash while Nagal made an unforced error to squander the second chance.

The French eventually held his serve, bringing Nagal to serve to push the opening set to a tie-breaker.

However, Nagal netted a backhand return to hand the Frenchman his first set point. The Indian saved that with a forehand winner on the right flank of his opponent.

Wayenburg outwitted Nagal on the next point, leaving him wrong-footed to smash a backhand winner to earn another set point. Wayenburg pocketed the set with an overhead smash after pushing Nagal to the back of the court with deep hitting on both flanks.

Nagal had an opportunity to nose ahead in the second set when he had breakpoints in the very first game but could not cash in. Making it worse, he was down a breakpoint himself after firing a backhand long at 30-all in the next game.

Wayenburg, though, did not miss the chance and took a 2-0 lead. The French player played smartly and often charged to the net to smash easy winners. In no time, he was leading 3-0.

From then on, it was a one-way traffic.

Nagal matched his best show of the 2025 season as he had finished a semifinalist in an event in Italy early this month.