"Mr. Bhupathi, can you please look at my game?"

Nine words. One critical question. It was the moment Sumit Nagal's career was born.

Without those nine words, he would not be among the 200 best players in the world. He would not have qualified for the US Open on Friday, storming back from a set and 0-3 down in the final round. And he would not be making his Grand Slam debut on opening night against Roger Federer, in front of thousands on Arthur Ashe Stadium and millions more watching around the world.

Simply put, without those nine words, Nagal says he would not be playing tennis.

***

Flash forward 12 years. It was an overcast Friday afternoon at Flushing Meadows, with rain showers delaying the start of play by two hours. Nagalhad reached the final round of qualifying, but his dreams of punching his ticket to a first Grand Slam were teetering on the brink. Standing on a packed Court 4, with a berth in the US Open main draw on the line, the 22-year-old was just three games from the exit.

Trailing by a set and a break to a red-hot Joao Menezes , he would mount a stunning comeback. Nagal flipped the script in a flash, reeling off six of the next seven games to force a decider. There, he sprinted to a double break lead and never looked back.

And just hours later, the experience became even more unbelievable. As he sat in the locker room, trying to process what he just achieved, he received a text from