Indian top male tennis player Sumit Nagal’s visa for participating in a tournament in China has been inexplicably denied. He publicly raised his complaint to the Chinese authorities on Monday (November 10) and requested the intervention of the Chinese diplomats stationed in India.
Nagal planned to participate in the Australian Open wildcard qualifying tournament in Chengdu on November 24. The Australian Open Asia-Pacific wildcard tournament will be held at the Sichuan International Tennis Center from November 24 to 29. There will be 16 participants in men’s and women’s singles respectively, and 12 pairs in men’s and women’s doubles.
In a post on his social media platform X on Monday, Nagal stated, “I was scheduled to travel to China to represent India in the Australian Open wildcard tournament. However, my visa was rejected with no reason given.”
Nagal also copied the post to the Chinese Ambassador to India, Sun Feihong, and the Chinese Embassy in India.
Officials from the Australian Open were asked about the incident on Wednesday (November 12). The 2026 Australian Open is the first Grand Slam tournament of the year and is scheduled to start in Melbourne on January 18 next year.
According to media reports in India, the Chinese Embassy and the organizers of the tournament have not responded to this issue.
The relationship between India and China has been tense, but there seems to be a slight warming recently. In October, plans were made to resume direct flights between some cities in India and China, after a five-year hiatus of such flights.
The 28-year-old Nagal has a career-high singles ranking of 68 in July 2024, and his current ranking is 290. He has been a member of the Indian Davis Cup team since 2018.
In January this year, he was knocked out in the first round of the Australian Open and failed to qualify for the French Open and Wimbledon. He previously partnered with Vietnamese player Ly Hoang Nam to win the boys’ doubles title at Wimbledon in 2015, becoming the sixth Indian player to win a junior Grand Slam title.
In the Asia-Pacific qualifying tournament held in Chengdu last year, Chinese player Zhang Shuai and Thai player Kasidit Samrej secured spots in the main draw of the 2025 Australian Open.
Zhang defeated American player McCartney Kessler in the first round in Melbourne but lost to 24th seed Yulia Putintseva in the second round.
Samrej had never appeared in a Grand Slam event before, not even in the qualifying rounds. He fought in a five-set match against 5th seed Daniil Medvedev in the first round but was ultimately defeated.
(Based on a report by the Associated Press)