Former National champion Purav Raja, a doubles specialist without a singles ranking in the international circuit, shocked the 337th ranked Vishnu Vardhan and eventually emerged a surprise qualifier in the Challenger tennis tournament on indoor carpet in Kyoto, Japan, on Sunday.
Wild card Purav outplayed the second-seeded Vishnu 6-1, 6-3 in the second qualifying round, after having warmed up with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Wang Chuhan of China. He humbled Masato Hatanaka of Japan 7-5, 6-3 in the third and final round.
Purav joined Yuki Bhambri in the main draw, and drew the top-seeded Go Soeda of Japan in the first round. The 290th Yuki will play Conor Niland of Ireland in the first round.
Another doubles specialist, with an impressive run in singles recently, Divij Sharan lost in the third qualifying round, 5-7, 2-6 to Yi Chu Huan of China. He had beaten Yuichi Ito of Japan 7-6(3), 6-4 and the eighth-seeded Jun Woong-Sun of Korea 7-6(4), 7-6(2) in the first two rounds in that order.
