Sumit Nagal, India's Top Men's Singles Tennis Player, Refused To Play For Country: AITA

The All India Tennis Association (AITA) on Tuesday suggested that the country's top player Sumit Nagal perhaps deliberately missed the Davis Cup tie against Sweden last week, claiming that he was injured but is now set to play an ATP tournament in China. India were hammered 0-4 by Sweden and AITA secretary Anil Dhupar said absence of top players like Nagal and Yuki Bhambri in the squad hurt the national team's chances of doing well in the World Group I contest in Stockholm.

Skipper Rohit Rajpal fielded doubles players N Sriram Balaji in the opening singles. Ramkumar Ramanathan was the only experienced player in the squad and two of the other three -- Aryan Shah and Siddharth Vishwakarma -- were debutants.

Niki Pooancha, who is just one-tie old, also largely focusses on doubles.

So effectively, India had just one singles player.

Nagal had opted out of the tie saying that he had some back issue while Yuki did not specify why he chose not to play.

Nagal has entered the ATP250 event in Hangzhou and is drawn to meet a Qualifier in his opening round.

"Definitely if Sumit and Yuki had played, we would have had far better chances. They questioned the management of AITA, the captain and team. Sumit Nagal said he had some back problem, but (is) that problem okay (now)? He is playing a tournament in China, so somebody has to make people understand the right thing," Dhupar said.

Asked Mukund Sasikumar was already suspended by the AITA, Dhupar said despite that, captain Rajpal made efforts to get him on the team.

"The captain called 10 times and that he will request the executive committee to revoke the decision (suspension). It's time for you to play. If there is a decision against you, he will request the executive committee. But