Divij-Purav end runners-up at Leon Challenger

Divij Sharan and Purav Raja had to be content with a runners-up finish at the ATP Challenger event in Leon as they lost the summit clash in straight sets to Chris Guccione and Matt Reid.

The fourth seeded Indian pair lost 3-6, 5-7 to their unseeded Australian rivals in the final of the $35000 hard court event.

Divij and Purav had beaten to the same opponents last month to win the Kyoto Challenger.

Divij and Purav earned 48 ranking points each and split $1,250 as prize money.

An early beak on Divij's serve in the second game pegged the Indians back as they could not break the rivals back.

In the second set, the Indians played much better. They broke Matt Reid's serve in the fourth game and soon they were set to serve out the set 5-3. However, Divij lost his serve and then Purav also was broken in the 11th game to hand back the lead to the Australians.