Davis Cup: India trail Korea 0-2 as Nagal, Suresh squander early leads

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

India's Sumit Nagal stands after missing a point against South Korea's ​Hyeon Chung during a Davis Cup second round qualifier tennis match between South Korea and India, in Seoul, South Korea,on September 18, 2026. | Photo Credit: AP

India's hopes of making the Davis Cup Final 8 were pushed to the brink after Dhakshineswar Suresh and Sumit Nagal squandered promising starts to lose their respective singles, leaving the visitors trailing 0-2 against Korea at the end of the opening day of their Qualifier tie on Friday (September 18, 2026).

Dhakshineswar lost the first match of his fledgling Davis Cup career when Korea's number one player Soonwoo Kwon beat him 3-6 6-3 6-4. The onus to bring India back was on India number one Nagal but he also squandered a solid start to lose 6-2 4-6 5-7 to experienced Hyon Chung after battling for more than three hours.

Chung showed the temperament of a big player as he earned points when it mattered the most.

Now India need to win all three matches on the final day to advance to the knockout stage which has happened only twice in India's history: in 2010 against Brazil at home and in 2018 against China in away tie.

In those contests, legendary Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had pulled off the must-win doubles rubber and now N Sriram Balaji and Niki Poonacha have the huge responsibility to keep India alive.

Nagal was aggressive from the word go, going for his trademark inside-out forehands. Chung though struggled to contain his unforced errors, giving many free points to Nagal. The Indian got the kind of start he needed as he broke Chung in the first game.

The Korean handed a double break to Nagal when he hit a backhand wide, yet again his unforced errors benefitting the Indian, who raced to a 4-0 lead in no time.

Chung got one break back by converting break chance in game six, only to lose it once more.

Nagal squandered three points, two with double faults, and pocketed the opening set when Chung's return flew over the baseline.

After getting a measure of his rival, Chung found his rhythm, playing intelligent tennis. He kept moving on both flanks and after getting him pinned on backhand side, he would charge to the net for winners. He used drop shots effectively.

Game seven turned out to be a humdinger with two players engaging in 7 deuce points. Eventually Nagal took the game when Chung made consecutive backhand errors.

Nagal though dropped his own serve in the next game, serving a double fault at deuce and then netting a forehand. Set was locked 4-4.