India’s Divij Sharan made headlines this year after winning two ATP doubles titles.
Sharan, who currently ranks at 46 in doubles ranking, is the second-highest ranked Indian after Rohan Bopanna in doubles rankings.
From a young age, he had a promising career in doubles. At his best, he was ranked at world no.5 in junior doubles rankings and reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros in 2004.
As a pro, he won his first doubles title at a challenger event in China in 2011 and then broke the Top 100 in 2012 with a title win in Busan and Bangkok at challenger events.
He won his first ATP World Tour title in 2013 in Bogota with partner Purav Raja defeating the then second-seeded pair Édouard Roger-Vasselin and Igor Sijsling. This year, he finished off ranking well inside the Top 100 due to his qualification for Wimbledon and reaching the third round at the US Open.
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His biggest success came with a bronze win for India at the 2014 Asian Games with fellow Indian Yuki Bhambri. Partnering with Raja for a second title, the duo won the Los Cabos Open.
In 2018, for the first time, he reached a Grand Slam quarterfinals match at Wimbledon with his partner Artem Sitak.
In 2019, Sharan partnered with Bopanna and the duo won the Maharashtra Open. This marked his fourth ATP tour title. The duo also won the gold medal at the Asian Games in 2018. He also won the St. Petersburg Open doubles title with partner Igor Zelenay.
Looking ahead at the 2020 season, he said:
“It’s the first time that I have won two ATP titles in one year and I am looking forward to coming back stronger next year.”
2020 also brings with it the Tokyo Olympics where the duo will try to qualify as partners. Bopanna, who was forced to pull out of the Davis Cup due to an injury, should be ready for the 2020 season. He said:
“I am looking forward to the Olympic Games. Divij (Sharan) and me are trying to play as much as possible, in tournaments wherever we can get in.”
Their strategy is to get their individual rankings higher by player bigger tournaments with different partners who have better rankings. Sharan said:
“We need to get the rankings higher as a team and it only helps us to make the cut for the Olympics. We have had different partners but we still try to practice with each other in tournaments.
We started the year together but we were not getting into the bigger tournaments. Rohan got the opportunity to play with Denis Shapovalov whose singles ranking was helpful.”
Hopefully, 2020 is the year Indian tennis players are able to break all records and help India win another medal at the Olympics.
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