A year to remember for Indian tennis in Doubles

The year 2022 will be remembered as a turning point in the Indian tennis doubles division. Several Indian doubles teams made their impact on the world stage during the year.

Purav Raja and Divij Sharan had a successful year on the ATP Challenger Tour, reaching multiple finals and winning two in Istanbul and Helsinki Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Sriram Balaji also went on to play in multiple finals in the Challenger tour and got similar results winning two in Bratislava and Blois. The year was fruitful for the newly formed pair of Yuki Bhambri And Saketh Myneni, who won two ITF events (Bhopal and New Delhi) and five Challenger tournaments (Salinas, Prostejov, Porto, Lexington and Mallorca) in between April and October which has helped the pair just about make it to the top 100.

The country’s No1 and current world No 20 in Men’s Doubles, Rohan Bopanna won three doubles titles in the ATP 250 events, respectively in Adelaide, Pune – TATA Maharashtra Open, which is also the biggest ATP event in India, and Tel-Aviv. Among these three doubles titles, he won two pairings with the former No 1 singles player of the country Ramkumar Ramanathan and the Dutch tennis star Matwe Middlekoop was Bopanna’s partner in Tel-Aviv Open, Israel.

The Indian tennis ace, Sania Mirza reached the semifinals at the WTA 1000 Qatar Open and the Italian Open as well as the French Open third round, partnering with Lucie Hradecká. At the 2022 National bank open. she reached the semifinals of a WTA 1000 level partnering with Madison Keys where they defeated Sofia Kenin and Yulia Putintseva in the quarterfinal.

Ankita Raina reached nine ITF finals, winning five of them in Solapur, Kazakhstan, Gurugram, Clay Court International and Bendigo International in Australia partnering with 6 different partners namely Prarthana Thombare, Rutuja Bhosale, Momoko Kobori, Arina Rodionova , Priska Madelyn Nugroho ,Rosalie Van Der Hoek.

The success of these doubles teams also led to a renewed interest in doubles tennis in India. Many young players are now turning to doubles as a viable career option, and this has led to the emergence of several new talents in the doubles circuit. For example, Niki Poonacha and Rithvik Bollipalli, another newly formed Indian pair, won a record 7 ITF Doubles titles together in the year 2022. Overall, Indian tennis in doubles in 2022 was a year to remember. In 2022, Indian tennis has gained international recognition especially because of its success in doubles, which has raised expectations for the sport’s future in the nation. The future of Indian doubles tennis seems bright because of the development of fresh talent and the resurgence of interest in the sport.