Author Chetan Bhagat was trolled for his tweet on Indian tennis.
Chetan Bhagat's tweet praising tennis player Sumit Nagal's performance against Swiss tennis maestro Roger Federer has not gone down well with netizens. Many Twitter users have criticised the 45-year-old author for saying that he grew up being told that "India has no chance in singles tennis at the global level."
Chetan Bhagat was tweeting to praise Nagal's first set win against Federer.
"Grew up being told that India has no chance in singles tennis at the global level. Just now @nagalsumit from my country won a set against The Roger Federer at the #USOpen. One day, India will win the Grand Slam too. Go Sumit Go," he tweeted on Tuesday.
Netizens were quick to slam him for his tweet, asking if the author was aware of names like Vijay Amritraj, Leander Paes, and Mahesh Bhupathi.
"How much nonsense can you spew Mr Bhagat? I grew up in an India where the Amritraj brothers were international giants and young men and women confidently aspired to international tennis careers. You've been living under some obscure rock," one Twitter user wrote, responding to his tweet.
"You haven't heard about players like Paes, Vijay Amritraj, Ramanathan Krishnan, Ramesh Krishnan? Grow up mate. Sumit has done well and that is great but he is not the first," another user commented.
Take a look at some of the reactions to Chetan Bhagat's tweet:
Federer had defeated 22-year-old Nagal 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 in the first round match.
However, Nagal had become the first Indian to defeat Federer in a set of a Grand Slam. He also became the fourth player to take the opening set against Federer at the US Open.
Nagal, who currently holds the 190th position in the ATP rankings, was able to show grit in the fourth set as the scoreline was levelled at 2-2 at one stage, but Federer bounced back by playing an aggressive style of tennis, forcing Nagal to hang back on the court. In the end, the Swiss won the fourth set 6-4.
The Indian player had qualified for the US Open main draw on Friday.
He became the youngest Indian in 25 years to qualify for the main draw of a Grand Slam after defeating Brazil's Jaao Menezes 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
Nagal had earlier bagged the Wimbledon Boys' doubles title in 2015.