Doubles stars Divij Sharan and Purav Raja made it a memorable week for Indian tennis fans as they clinched the Open Castilla Y Leon in Segovia, Spain on Saturday. The all-Indian pair, seeded third, held their nerves for a thrilling 6-3, 4-6, 10-8 victory over the Spanish-Japanese wildcard team of Joaquin Munoz-Hernandez and Akira Santillan in the final of this hardcourt tournament.
The win comes right after Leander Paes and Andre Begemann’s triumph at the Biella Challenger earlier in the day.
Third Challenger title for Raja and Sharan this season
This is the third Challenger title of the season for Sharan and Raja to add to their victories at Manchester and Surbiton on grass right before the Wimbledon Championships. For Sharan, this was the 11th Challenger title of his career while for Raja, this was his ninth win at the same stage.
The Indians had a fantastic start in the summit clash and broke their opponents twice to have the first set in the bag. But the unfazed Japanese-Spanish duo made in-roads into the third-seeded team’s serve in the very first game of the second set. After breaking them in the very first they carried on the momentum to win the second set.
Also read: Leander Paes and Andre Begemann win Biella Challenger title
It was a tight affair in the match tie-break and the Indians managed to edge past their unseeded opponents in 1 hour 18 minutes.
Sharan and Raja used to play together during 2012-2014 and even won an ATP title together. They reunited this year and have immediately met with success. They came to the Segovia Challenger in a rich vein of form after reaching back-to-back semi-finals in ATP 250 events at Newport and Gstaad the last two weeks.
