PUNE, February 26, 2026 (Media Release)
Great Britain’s Felix Gill held his nerve in a high-intensity battle to defeat India’s top star Sumit Nagal 7-6(4), 0-6, 6-3 in a marathon encounter lasting two hours and 37 minutes and make it to the quarterfinals at the PMRDA Powered Maha Open ATP Challenger 75 Men’s Tennis Championship in Pune.
Nagal broke his opponent twice in the first set but could not hold his serve. The first set went to a closely contested tie-break which Gill managed to win. In the second set, the 300th-ranked Gill saw Nagal storm back with a dominant second-set bagel. With the match at one set all, Gill regrouped strongly in the decider. He secured the decisive break to close out a hard-fought victory and a revenge win, after Nagal had earlier beaten the Brit at Chennai two weeks ago.
Felix in fine form
7-6(4), 0-6, 6-3 Nagal fires Delhi semi-finalist @FelixGill11 into the Pune quarter-finals#ATPChallenger | @the_LTA pic.twitter.com/OahaamQaj7
— ATP Challenger (@ATPChallenger) February 26, 2026
Meanwhile, eighth seed Edas Butvilas of Lithuania delivered a clinical performance to outclass qualifier Tung-Lin Wu of Chinese Taipei 6-3, 6-0 in just 58 minutes. Butvilas controlled the baseline exchanges from the outset and wrapped up the contest in emphatic fashion without allowing his opponent any rhythm in the second set.
In the biggest upset of the day, Japanese qualifier Masamichi Imamura shocked second seed Jay Clarke of Great Britain 6-2, 6-4 in one hour and 19 minutes. Imamura played fearless tennis, capitalizing on crucial break-point opportunities to seal a straight-sets victory.
THURSDAY RESULTS
Singles – Second Round
Edas Butvilas [8](Ltu) bt [Q] Tung-Lin Wu (Tpe) 6-3, 6-0
Felix Gill (Gbr) bt Sumit Nagal (Ind) 7-6(4), 0-6, 6-3
[Q] Masamichi Imamura (Jpn) bt Jay Clarke[2] 6-2, 6-4
Doubles – Quaraterfinals
[4] Jisung Nam (Kor) / Patrik Niklas-Salminen (Fin) bt Ryuki Matsuda (Jpn) /Ilia Simakin 6-3, 6-3;
Yuta Shimizu (Jpn) / Seita Watanabe [3] (Jpn) bt [Wc] Saketh Myneni (Ind) / Digvijaypratap Singh (Ind) 6-4, 6-4;
Pruchya Isaro (Tha) / Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (Ind)[2] bt Jay Clarke (Gbr) / Michael Geerts (Bel) 1-0 retd.
