Wimbledon 2018 | Divij Sharan and partner Artem Sitak crash out in the quarter-finals

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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After making his way to the first grand slam quarter-final, Divij Sharan along with Kiwi partner Artem Sitak were knocked out of by the star pairing of Jack Sock and Mike Bryan. The duo troubled the American Grand Slam winners for three hours and 14 minutes as they lost 6-7 (4) 6-7(5) 7-6(3) 4-6.

Indian tennis pro, Divij Sharan was a men’s doubles specialist and burst into the international tennis scene back in 2012 when he won the Busan Challenger with Yuki Bhambri and Bangkok Challenger with Vishnu Vardhan. He was then chosen to be part of India’s Davis Cup team and has been in and out of the squad ever since.

But despite a good six years of hard-work, Divij had never managed to make it past the round of 16 stage at a grand slam event. However, all that changed when Divij along with partner Artem Sitak of New Zealand defeated Jonathan Erlich and Marcin Matkowski by 1-6 6-7(3) 6-4 6-4 6-4 in the knockout stage at this year’s Wimbledon Championship.

This meant that the 32-year old Indian would compete in his very first grand-slam quarter-final in the men’s double category for the first time in his career. But sadly, Sharan’s dream run in London was brought to a halt by the American duo of Mike Bryan and Jack Sock, who battled their way to a hard-fought 6-7 (4) 6-7(5) 7-6(3) 4-6 victory, over the Indo-Kiwi pair in a match that lasted for three hours and 14 minutes.

“It’s not easy to have lost today as match is bigger opportunity going forward. It was a really close match today against Sock and Mike, who will become the number one player in the world again. Jack Sock has been a champion here at Wimbledon.

“But we played some really good tennis and came through physical and mental tests in the last couple of matches to come from behind to win in five sets,” Sharan told PTI sources.

Over the course of their last two matches, left-handed Sharan and Sitak had chalked out inspiring five-set wins despite trailing by two sets and raised hopes of an upset by taking the third set this time round as well. But it was not meant to be as the experienced American pair ultimately made their way to a deserving victory.

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