DIVIJ SHARAN
By Saurabh Singh | AITA
Indian tennis players are slowly getting back to professional tennis action at various tournaments being organised in Europe this week.
One of them is the leading women’s player Ankita Raina, ranked 166th on the WTA singles ranking, who won her maiden match after the COVID-19 outbreak halted global tennis in March.
Playing her second tournament after the unprecedented break, Raina beat Japan’s Kyoka Okamura in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 to enter round two of the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour’s W25 Prague 2020.
By Saurabh Singh | AITA
US Open 2020 – the first Grand Slam, after the COVID-19 pandemic had emerged worldwide early this year, begins today in New York, United States with three Indians – India’s top ranked player Sumit Nagal, 2020 Arjuna Awardee Divij Sharan and 2017 French Open Mixed Doubles champion Rohan Bopanna making it to the main draw of the competition.
Divij Sharan, ranked 56th (Doubles) in the world and 2018 Asian Games Men’s Doubles Gold medalist, Nandan Bal, one of India’s former Davis Cup star players and now a leading Tennis Coach, and Naresh Kumar, former Davis Cup player and one of the best coaches in India, have been recommended for Arjuna Award, Dhyan Chand Award and Lifetime Dronacharya Award, respectively, by the National Sports Awards Selection Committee.
India's Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan won the gold medal in the men's doubles tennis event at the ongoing 18th Asian Games 2018 in the twin cities of Jakarta and Palembang by winning the gold medal match against Kazakhstan's men's doubles pair.
Bopanna and Sharan, who were the top seeds in the event, played to their billing throughout the tournament and beat Kazakhstan's Aleksandr Bublik and Denis Yevseyev 6-3, 6-4 to scoop the top prize in the event.
With the win, India's medals tally has now swelled up to 22, including 6 gold medals, 4 silver and 12 bronze.
