The power and precision of Medvedev was too much to handle for Nagal, whose ATP rankings mark a distant 160-plus. Medvedev broke Nagal in the very first game of the match and the Russian did not give even a sniff to his opponent during the entire course of the match.
Medvedev served in the 200+ range and his groundstrokes were deep and powerful for the Indian to handle consistently. In fact, the Indian landed an impressive 72 per cent of first serve, but that remained the lone bright spot for him on the day against the lanky Russian.
Double breaks in both the sets helped Medvedev to close out the match in just 66 minutes without ever breaking a sweat.
Nagal on Saturday had become only the third Indian tennis player to win a men’s singles match at the Olympic Games and the first in 25 years, when he edged past Denis Istomin in a three-setter.
Nagal got the better of Istomin 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-4 in two hours and 34 minutes on court 10 at the Ariake Tennis Centre to set up a second round clash with world number two Medvedev.
Zeeshan Ali was the first Indian to win a singles match at the 1988 Seoul Games when he beat Victo Caballero from Paraguay.
After that, the legendary Leander Paes won the historic men’s singles bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games, beating Brazil’s Fernando Meligeni.
No Indian could win a singles match after Paes’ heroic feat even as Somdev Devvarman and Vishnu Vardhan competed at the 2012 Games in London but did not manage to cross the first-round hurdle.
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