Sumit Nagal: EXCLUSIVE – ‘I have been spending Rs 1-1.5 crore annually’: Sumit

NEW DELHI: In September 2023, India’s top-ranked tennis player, Sumit Nagal, confessed in an interview, “If I look at my bank balance, I have what I had at the beginning of the year. It is 900 euros (approx Rs 80,000).”
As soon as the statement went viral, support started pouring in for the 26-year-old athlete, with Sumit signing a deal with PepsiCo-owned Gatorade and DLTA (Delhi Lawn Tennis Association) releasing a one-time support of Rs 5 lakh for the Indian tennis player.
Now that his financial difficulties are sorted a bit, World No. 170 Sumit is back to his main vocation, focusing on his game with an aim for a strong finish to the season.
Sumit joined all the way from Germany for an exclusive chat with TimesofIndia.com, talking about the Tennis Premier League (TPL) auction, where he became the most expensive player for season 5, about his annual budget, his tennis journey so far and much more. Excerpts:

You are bought for a whopping Rs 18.5 lakh in the TPL auction. How do you feel about being the most expensive player for season 5 of the TPL?
It’s a proud feeling to be sold as the most expensive player in India and looking at the players TPL have brought this year. Ernests Gulbis, Dennis Novak, and Lukas Rosol — they have all been top hundreds. I think they (TPL) have been doing a good job. They’re doing a fantastic job, trying to make tennis a little bit more popular in India. So, looking at it, it is probably the third or second biggest sport in the world; and India is the most populated country now. And having been sold at the highest price, it is a nice feeling.

How different is the league like TPL from the usual ATP tour?
The league (TPL) and the tour are very different, I’m sure. It’s a nice feeling to play the league in our country, to represent Gujarat Panthers, but it is very different from what we do every day on a daily basis (in the tour).
With your financial difficulties almost sorted now, what is your immediate goal?
Right now, my focus is back to playing the tennis matches. I said what I had to say earlier in September, but now I am just getting ready for the tournaments again, and I will try to finish the season strong.
Your thoughts on the corporate support that came along recently and how much it is a help?
Every help you get from the companies, it helps a tennis player from India. I’ll just talk about tennis players from India because we do lack financial support. If you have to play the majority of the time, you have to pay for your coaches, your expenses, and it comes out a lot in tennis because you’re playing so many tournaments, in and out so many flights, so many different hotels. So every time you get help from someone, I really appreciate it. And it helps out a lot in someone’s career, who’s trying to play at the highest level, flying to America, for example, to Europe, up to China. I know it costs money at the end of the year.

Could you tell us more…