Becoming the top-ranked Asian is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life, admits Divij Sharan

Becoming the top-ranked Asian is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life, admits Divij Sharan

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India’s tennis pro Divij Sharan admits that the achievement of becoming the top-ranked Asian in the ATP doubles list is an achievement that will stay with him for the rest of his life. Divij further confirmed that he will pair up with Rohan Bopanna for the Tokyo Olympics next year.

With a recent three-place jump up the ranking charts that took him to number 42 in the world, Divij became the top-ranked Asian in the ATP doubles list. All the 41 players above him are predominantly from Europe, USA and a few from South American countries like Brazil and Argentina.

"It feels great to reach this milestone. It's something that will stay with me for the rest of my life," Divij told PTI.

With an eye on the upcoming Olympics, the left-hander joined forces with compatriot Bopanna and won the Tata Open in Maharashtra. However, the partnership that began with a bang did not last long as a string of poor results, and their rankings being in the 40s, prohibited them from entering tournaments together. 

As a result, Divij was forced to switch partners throughout the season, ending up with 10 different partners in the 28 tournaments he has featured in this year. He reached the final of the BMW Open in Munich with Brazil's Marcelo Demoliner and he won the St Petersburg Open with Slovakia's Igor Zelenay.

"It's true I have played with different partners but I have had some consistent partnerships in the last 52 weeks with Artem, Rohan and Marcelo. It's been different dynamics in all these partnerships but I have tried to focus on my game and how best I can contribute to the team," Divij said.

However, the 33-year-old confirmed that he would be pairing up with Bopanna on the Tour, with the intention of making it to the Olympics next as a team still intact. 

"Rohan and I had to split because we were not getting into the bigger tournaments together. We are both looking forward to playing with each other at the Olympics. We will try to play some tournaments together leading up to the Games. In fact, we are going to play together at the Stockholm Open next week," Divij added.

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