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What’s the story?
Indian doubles tennis player, Divij Sharan continued his upward move by breaking into the top-50 of the recently updated doubles rankings, released by ATP. Currently, Sharan occupies the 50th position, which is incidentally his best ever ranking.
In Case You Didn’t Know
The Delhi lad, who is very active on ATP tours, made the final of the last three tournaments he participated in, which in-turn boosted his ranking. He clinched the ATP 250 European Open, while ending runner-up at Challenger events in Brest and Tashkent with different partners.
The Heart of the Matter
The latest update in rankings means that India have two players in the top-50 players in doubles. Rohan Bopanna, who is currently placed at the 15th spot is the other player apart from Sharan. Purav Raja (62), Leander Paes (70) and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (97) are the other top-100 Indian players.
Sharan, who gained a spot, is currently featuring in the Slovak Open along with his Russian partner, Mikhail Elgin. A triumph here will surely take him higher in the charts and make him a candidate for Indian Davis Cup doubles team.
What's Next?
Sharan is someone who has matured late and developed his game over the years. The Slovak Open, where he has already reached the quarter-finals, is very vital for him as he wouldn’t want to break the rhythm of making it to the final rounds. Finishing the year on a strong note is another thing which will be on his mind.
Author’s Take:
Sharan’s ranking makes him a hot favourite to get paired with Rohan Bopanna in the Davis Cup. But before that he has to stitch together some more title wins to further improve his ranking. Also, he has to take care of the fact that he gets a permanent partner, because playing every other tournament with new people will definitely hamper his progress as everytime he will need to get settled with a particular player.
