India's top singles player Sumit Nagal on Monday pulled out of the upcoming Davis Cup tie against Sweden due to a back injury.
Nagal recently witnessed the end of his US Open campaign after he suffered a straight-set defeat against Dutch player Tallon Griekspoor in the opening round of the men’s singles event.
The indoor hard-court contest in Stockholm will be played on September 14-15.
"I was really looking forward to representing in the upcoming Davis Cup tie against Sweden," Nagal wrote on social media.
"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.
Nagal reached a career-high ranking of 68 in July but has dropped to 82 in the latest rankings. India's highest-ranked singles player not being part of the Davis Cup tie is a big blow to the team.
Former national champion Ashutosh Singh has been named as the new coach of the national team.
Notably, Sumit was the only Indian tennis player at the US Open 2024 to feature in the singles category across men’s and women’s events.
He became the first Indian man since 2019 to compete in the singles event of all four Grand Slam tournaments in a year.
The 27-year-old reached the second round of the Australian Open this year before crashing out of the first rounds in the French Open and Wimbledon.
At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Sumit became only the second Indian player to make the cut in the singles event in consecutive editions of the Summer Games since Leander Paes.
India Team for Davis Cup
Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sriram Balaji, Niki Poonacha, Siddharth Vishwakarma. Res.: Aryan Shah. Captain: Rohit Rajpal; Coach: Ashutosh Singh. Physios: Yash Pandey and Debashish Das.