Bengaluru, Jan. 7 -- A single disputed call, a silent protest, and a tie-break that slipped through tired fingers defined Sumit Nagal's narrow defeat as France's Harold Mayot scraped through a pulsating three-set battle to reach the Bengaluru Open quarterfinals on Wednesday.
The match tilted dramatically in the deciding tie-break when Mayot protested a crucial return from Nagal, insisting it had landed well outside the regulation line. He walked up to the chair umpire and even gestured towards dignitaries courtside, stressing how decisive the point was in a breaker that could determine the contest.
The interruption froze a moment already heavy with tension and underlined how slender the margins were in a match spiralling towards chaos.
A...