Why Nagal could not build on Bengaluru Open success

This week, last year Sumit Nagal savoured the week of his tennis life by winning his maiden Challenger singles title in Bengaluru and his ranking zoomed up from 321 to 225.

The Jhajjar-born player, handpicked by Mahesh Bhupathi for support, hoped to build on the success but an experiment with his support staff, coupled with injuries, proved costly and the same week this season, his ranking is set to plummet to close to 500.

Between November to November he played 24 tournaments and was knocked out in the first round in 16 of them, the most recent being the Pune Challenger, where he lost to top seed Radu Albot.

When new rankings are issued on Monday, he is likely to be placed 485 after losing 100 points from his kitty.

However, his Haryanvi blood -- which makes him aggressive and at times temperamental -- and hiring of the desired coaching staff means that Nagal is not losing sleep.

"In tennis it is normal to have a year when you do not perform as you are expected to. It will just take .