Bengaluru Open: Divij Sharan wins his second Challenger title of the season

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Mikhail Elgin (left) and Divij Sharan with the Bengaluru Open trophy on Friday (Image courtesy: Deepthi Indukuri Twitter)

Indian doubles ace Divij Sharan capped off a brilliant week by winning the men’s doubles title at the $100, 000 Bengaluru Open held at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association grounds on Friday. The top seeded combine of Sharan and Mikhail Elgin of Russia faced absolutely no challenge in the summit clash and raced away to a commanding 6-3, 6-0 win over the unseeded Croatian team of Ivan Sabanov and Matej Sabanov.

Third ATP title of any kind for Sharan in 2017

This is Sharan’s second doubles Challenger title of the season and 14th overall. He had earlier triumphed at the Bordeaux Challenger alongside Purav Raja in May.

This is also the southpaw's third ATP title of any kind this year. The World No. 51 won his third ATP World Tour title at the European Open in Antwerp in tandem with Scott Lipsky. He has been having a superb season since September that saw him reach the final at the Tashkent Challenger and the Brest Challenger, besides claiming the aforementioned Antwerp title.

Sharan and Elgin started the final with a bang, going up 3-1 in the first set. They did not have to sweat much and broke once more to wrap up the first set. In the second set, the Croatians could do nothing to stop the march of the Indo-Russian pair, who sailed to the win in just 57 minutes.

Sharan and Elgin finished with a total tally of 51 points while their opponents could bag only 34 points. They converted 5 out of the 11 break point opportunities they had and saved the only break point they faced.

The top seeds were stretched to the deciding match tie-break twice in their four matches this week. In the first round, they had to come back from a set down to grab a 5-7, 6-4, 10-5 win over Geoffrey Blancaneaux and Jay Clarke. They were once again put to a stern test in the semi-finals by the third seeds N Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan, but came through in the end with a 6-4, 4-6, 10-8 win.

Nagal to meet Clarke in singles final

In the singles semi-finals, 20-year-old Sumit Nagal caused a huge upset by ousting the third seed and Pune Challenger champion Yuki Bhambri. The former junior Wimbledon doubles champion did not let the India No. 1 settle into the match and raced away to a 6-4, 6-0 win.

He takes on the unseeded Jay Clarke of Great Britain in the final. The latter easily beat Tsung-Hua Yang of Chinese Taipei, 6-3, 6-4 in the other semi-final.

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