European Open: Divij Sharan and Scott Lipsky stun second seeds to enter final

Indian tennis ace Divij Sharan and Scott Lipsky of the USA put in a stunning display to shock the second seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers in the semi-finals of the ATP 250 European Open in Antwerp, Belgium on Friday. The unseeded pair needed just 1 hour 6 minutes to pull off a 0-6, 6-4, 10-5 win over the Croatian-Spanish duo.

Sharan and Lipsky looked absolutely clueless in the initial stages of the match where they were broken thrice in a thoroughly one-sided opening set. The second seeds did not even face any break point in that set.

The match turned around in the second set as the Indo-American combine made a remarkable comeback by carving out a crucial break that sent the match into a deciding tie-break. They then held their nerves to complete the big win.

Sharan and Lipsky finished with a total of 27 points while the Rotterdam Open champions could only manage 19.

The two have been giant-killers at this tournament. In the quarter-finals, they sent the third seeds Rajeev Ram and Raven Klaasen packing with a 6-4, 4-6, 10-8 win. They will meet the winner of the other semi-final between Santiago Gonzalez-Julio Peralta and Wesley Koolhof-Artem Sitak.

The left-handed Sharan has been in impressive form of late. He came to this event on the back of a runner-up show at the Tashkent Challenger.

He is looking to lay hands on his first trophy of the year on the ATP Tour. He and Puraj Raja won the Bordeaux Challenger title, besides finishing as runners-up at the Chennai Open.

Nedunchezhiyan in Ningbo Challenger final

The top seeded team of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Christopher Rungkat pulverized the Indo-Italian combine of Sumit Nagal and Riccardo Ghedin 6-1, 6-0 in just 35 minutes to book their final berth at the $125, 000 Ningbo Challenger in China on Friday.

Nagal and Ghedin could not hold any of their service games and conceded seven breaks. The only game that they managed to win in the entire match was earned through a service break.

In the final on Saturday, the top seeds will take on the unseeded pair of Radu Albot and Jose Statham.

Nedunchezhiyan is attempting to win his second Challenger title of the year after triumphing at Ostrava earlier in the year.