The third seeded Indian pair of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja made it to the quarter-finals in the ATP Challenger event in Furth, Germany, after a hard-earned victory in the opening round.
Left-handed Divij and Raja defeated Andrej Martin of Slovak Republic and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo of Chile 6-3, 1-6, 10-8 in the first round of the euro 30,000 clay-court event.
The Indians got an early break and raced to a 3-1 lead. Both the teams held serve after that and the Indians easily pocketed the set.
However, their opponents regrouped and made a stunning comeback. They routed the Indians in the second set with two breaks, stretching the issue to the match tie-breaker, which saw the Indians up the ante and clinch the issue.
Divij and Raja next play Kevin Krawietz and Dominic Schulz of Germany in the quarter-finals on Friday.
© 2025