India's Sumit Nagal continued his dream run in Europe as he reached the final of the Internazionali di Tennis Citta di Perugia, a Challenger-level event in Italy, with a three-set win over Bernabe Zapata Miralles of Spain in the semifinals on Saturday.
Fifth-seeded Nagal secured his spot in the final by defeating Zapata Miralles 7-6(2),1-6, 6-2 for his ninth win in 11 days this season.
After winning the Heilbronn Challenger last week in Germany, he has now advanced to the final at the Perugia Challenger.
Nagal broke in the second game of the first set to take a 2-0 lead but Zapata broke back in the marathon fifth game that went to deuce six times before the Spaniard got the break and made the score 2-3. He then held his service to make it 3-3.
The two players continued to hold serve in the next few games before Zapata put Nagal's serve under pressure in the 11th game. The Indian managed to hold his service. He eventually won the tiebreak 7-2 to win the first set.
Zapata turned the tables on Nagal in the second set. He dominated the set, breaking Nagal in the 5th and 6th games to win the set easily.
Nagal regrouped in the decider and broke serve in the second game. Though Zapata broke immediately back to negate the advantage, Nagal broke Zapata's service in the fourth game and again in the sixth game to win the set and the match in two hours and 39 minutes.
