India’s top-ranked tennis player Sumit Nagal pulled out of the Davis Cup tie against Sweden due to a back injury. The indoor hard-court tournament is slated to take place on September 14-15 in Stockholm.

Nagal, recently, lost the first-round singles match against his Dutch counterpart Tallon Griekspoor at the United States (US) Open.

“I was really looking forward to representing in the upcoming Davis Cup tie against Sweden,” Nagal said in a post on X.

“However, due to a back issue that’s been bothering me for the past few weeks, doctors have advised me to rest for the next two weeks, leaving me without enough time to prepare and compete in Sweden. This same issue also led to my withdrawal from the US Open doubles.

“I’m deeply disappointed to be missing this tie, but I have to listen to my body to prevent the back from worsening, so that I can finish the season strong and healthy. Good luck to the Indian team – I’ll be cheering for you all from home!” he added.

The 27-year-old is currently placed at the 82nd position in the latest men’s singles ranking after having reached a career-high ranking of 68 in July. His injury came as a big blow to the Indian team as he was the top-ranked singles player.

India’s Davis Cup squad includes Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sriram Balaji, Niki Poonacha, and Siddharth Vishwakarma, while Aryan Shah has been named as the reserve. Rohit Rajpal will captain the Indian team with Ashutosh Singh named as the coach. The physios for the Indian team include Yash Pandey and Debashish Das.