India's highest-ranked singles tennis player Sumit Nagal will take on world number 26 Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic in the opening round of the Australian Open, beginning here on Sunday.

The 27-year-old Nagal, currently 96th on the ATP, made it to the main draw of the season-opening Grand Slam by virtue of being among the 104 highest-ranked players in the world.

Machac had beaten world number two Carlos Alcaraz at the ATP Shanghai Masters last season.

Nagal will take inspiration from his last year's outing at the Melbourne Park when he beat the then world number 31 Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan in the opening round before going down to China's Juncheng Shang.

The Harayana player made an early exit in the Auckland ASB Classic -- a tuneup event for the Australian Open -- on Monday losing to USA's Alex Michelsen 7-6 (8), 4-6, 2-6 in a gruelling two-hour, 40-minute battle.

Nagal was in the news recently for once again refusing to play for the country in the Davis Cup.

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