India’s Sumit Nagal on Friday entered the singles main draw of the Australian Open with an easy win over Slovakia’s Alex Molcan in the tournament’s qualifying final here.

Nagal cruised past Molcan 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and three minutes, and won the match after his opponent made a double fault at 30-40 in the 10th game of the second set.

“It feels great, it’s always nice to qualify for the slam. My emotions were really high after the match. I needed to calm myself down, I sat in the locker room for an hour and a half,” Nagal said after the match.

“It meant so much to me, looking at my last few years, going through surgery and not being able to play the tournaments which I wanted to play and ranked 500 something at the beginning of last year.

“So yeah, I worked very hard to be here and I am proud of myself and team for making me the player I am today.”

Nagal will now face Kazakhstan’s world No. 31 Alexander Bublik in the first round of the main tournament.

“I haven’t thought about the next match. I need to enjoy this moment, it has been a while since I played the main draw in a slam, so I am going to enjoy the night, call my parents and chill with my coach and then think about the next match.”

Currently World No. 122 in singles, this is Nagal’s second main draw appearance in the Australian Open after his entry in 2021. Nagal had gone down to Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis in the opening round 2-6, 5-7, 3-6 that year.