How did Indians fare in 2013 - Part 1

7. Divij Sharan and Purav Raja enter the big screen

Starting their season just during the last week of February, Divij Sharan and Purav Raja have worked their way up the rankings ladder to the top 100 for the first time ever and thus making it 5 Indians in the top 100 rankings.

With considerate success in the Challenger tour, including a title and three runner-up finishes prior to the Wimbledon, they made it to the qualifiers at Roehampton. After qualifying for their first ever tour event and Grand Slam, they lost a tough five setter in the first round. Following this, they made it to the Columbia Open in Bogota, a 250 event as the fourth seeds and won the tournament. Surprisingly, it was their first tour event apart from the Wimbledon.

They form that they showed then receded into oblivion for the rest of the season. They managed to register very few wins apart from the runner-up finish at Tashkent Challenger.

They are two promising players, especially Divij with his superior doubles skills. He was the first of the two to crack the top 100 way back in the last season. They might have had good success at times but they faltered at many junctures. Yet, for this partnership to last, they will have to come up with something extraordinary and work even harder. Sharan’s runs into the semifinals of Newport 250 event with Ivo Karlovic and into the third round of the US Open with Yen Hsun-Lu portray his potential to make it big in doubles. Hopefully, both enjoy an even better season and continue to improve their rankings.These two have done very well to assure fans that the top three will not be unaided. Finally, we seem to have the key to the oft repeated question- Who after Paes and Bhupathi barring Bopanna?