Divij Sharan and Purav Raja win Surbiton Challenger title

Indian doubles players Divij Sharan and Purav Raja are having a ball after reuniting this year. They grabbed their second consecutive title in as many weeks after triumphing at the €42,500 Aegon Surbiton Trophy Challenger tournament in the United Kingdom late on Friday.

The fourth seeds emerged victorious 6-4, 7-6(3) over the top-seeded British pair of Ken and Neal Skupski to add to the Challenger title they won in Manchester last week. There too they had beaten the Skupski brothers in the summit clash.

This was their eighth match win in a row.

Played both the semis and the final on the same day

It wasn’t an easy affair for the Indians in Surbiton as rain played spoilsport and pushed back their semi-final match to the day of the final. Having had to do double duty on Friday, they did not have it all going their way.

Against the Skupskis, they were staring at two set points in the second set but Raja and Sharan showed enough grit to pull through in straight sets in the final that lasted 1 hour 5 minutes. Earlier in the semi-finals, they had got the better of the Australian duo Luke Saville and Jordan Thompson 6-3, 6-3.

This was the tenth title for Divij at Challenger level while for Purav, this is his eighth triumph at the same stage.

The two used to play during 2012-2014 and qualified for the Wimbledon Championships in 2013. They even won an ATP title together that same year in Bogota before parting ways. The two joined forces again this year and met with immediate success.