DIVIJ SHARAN MAKES MAIDEN QUARTERFINALS IN WIMBLEDON

Delhi boy Divij Sharan made his maiden quarterfinals in Wimbledon as he in partnership with Artem Sitak of New Zealand, did the Houdini yet again, bouncing back from losing the first two sets 1-6, 6-7(3), to enact a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over the next three sets against Jonathan Erlich of Israel and Marcin Matkowski of Poland on Monday.

In a battle of wits that lasted three hours and 50 minutes, Divij and partner converted three of 16 breakpoints in the match, after having dropped serve twice in the first set. The Indo-Kiwi pair faced only two breakpoints in all in the last three sets and both were in the decider.

Interestingly, the 32-year-old Divij, ranked 44 in the world, had won his only title this season so far with Jonathan Erlich in the Canberra Challenger.

Starting with the two Futures doubles titles in NIgeria in 2007 with Navdeep Singh, Divij has three Tour titles, 15 Challenger titles and 19 Futures titles to his credit.

For someone who had lost three finals in the National championship in 2003_the men’s final to Punna Vishal, the men’s doubles final in partnership with Somdev Dev Varman against Rishi Sridhar and Ajay Ramaswami; and the junior final to Navdeep Singh_Divij has indeed come a long way.

For the left-hander, it may be a left-handed compliment but it has to be mentioned in right earnest, to highlight the determination and perseverance of the young man, that when we did not take much note of him as an under-14 player representing the country, his dad Madhav Sharan would remind us that there was a third player behind Tushar Liberhan and Karan Rastogi in the team!

In this Wimbledon, Divij is the only Indian fighting his way forward in the second week of the Championship.

In the quarterfinals, Divij and partner will play the seventh seeds Mike Bryan and Jack Sock of the US.