Divij Sharan thread

[PKBasu]

Divij Sharan has earned his own thread by winning both the 3rd and the Master's leg of the recently concluded India Satellite 2 for 2006 (possibly the last Satellite circuit ever held in India, unless the ITF relents). With this, Divij earned a whopping 36 ATP points, likely taking his tally to 49 next week (on par with Sunil Kumar Sipaeya, making them the joint India #5).
Divij has won a round each in two Futures in India earlier this year, and he was the runner-up in the national tennis championships in late 2004. As a junior, he reached a career-high world ranking of 29, and a career-high doubles junior ranking of #5 in the world. He is definitely an excellent doubles player, but it is great to see him blossom into a fine singles player at the age of 20 (born: 2/3/1986). 

[sameerph]

Superb effort in last 2 weeks by Divij to win 9 matches in a row .

Here are a couple of articles on the final match & on his coach Birbal Wadhera:-

http://cities.expressindia.com/archivef ... 2006-09-02

http://cities.expressindia.com/archivef ... 2006-09-03

Hopefully Divij will use this win as a springboard for greater success in times to come.

[jayakris]

What an unexpected run, and a what a show by this guy!! -- we were waiting for a looong time, Divij!

With the 36 points from the Indian satellites, Divij has raised his point total to 49 and ranking from 866 to 520 !!  He moved ahead of Sunil Kumar at #528 to the Indian #5 spot behind RB, HM, PA and KR ..

Welcome to the elite group, Divij !!! .. You earned it.

Jay

[jaydeep]

It was a long wait, but atlast Divij delivered ... Hopefully this (last) satellite would turned up as turning point for Divij career.

Jaydeep.

[maharaja]

Here is an article on Divij and some other Indian players at the Indian Satellites in the SportStar.It is a nice write up on how Divij's fitness and grit helped him clinch the last 2 legs of the circuit. Even though he trains under the DLTA and AITA programme it is surely helping him to have someone as Birbal travel with him during his tournaments.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/2 ... 702400.htm

[jayakris]

Nice to see Divij immediately looking at doing a proper schedule.  He is entered for the $15K futures in Australia (hard court) - Sep 25.  He is listed as the 5th seed for now.  He will also be at the Traralgon $15K on Oct 2nd and I assume also for the 3rd week at Melbourne Park.

Go Divij!

Jay

[PKBasu]

That's nice to see. But it's also rather disturbing and strange that the India #2, #5 and #6 (Harsh, Divij and Sunil respectively) will all be choosing to skip the Mumbai Open, one of India's two ATP tour events. This really seems to open up opportunities in the qualifying rounds for the next tier of Indian players.

[jayakris]

I was not too thrilled about seeing Sunil Kumar basically waste his time in the US rather than play the Indian satellites, Mumbai etc.  He badly needs points and weeks have gone by without a single point for him. 

For Harsh, he can't do much about it because he needs to be in the US for that 60-day immigration period I was mentioning, and he does not know when he will again be in the US for that long. 

For Divij, I certainly prefer him going to the bext set of futures out there in this period - no reason to suddenly think he is ready to win the qualies at Mumbai when he has hardly played top-250 players so far in his career.  He has to take the proper steps rather get too overconfident and waste time.  I like him going to the futures immediately now.

Jay

[sameerph]

Yeah, I think Divij still needs to play few competive futuures event to sharpen his game .
But I think Harsh & Sunil would have had a good chance in Mumbai ATP qualies as the draw may not be that tough. Unfortunate that they cannot make it due to various reasons.

[PKBasu]

I think all three stood a good chance of qualifying into the main draw in Mumbai, and that would have been very valuable in terms of points and confidence.
On Divij, remember he has beaten a 320-quality player twice in successive weeks. With a little luck, he should be able to take on almost anyone in the qualifying draw in Mumbai.

[PKBasu]

Divij isn't in the draw for the Australia F9 this week. I wonder what happened...

If he wasn't going to Australia, he should have played the Mumbai qualifiers, or asked for a wild-card into the main draw!

[jayakris]

CRAP! .. I just noticed that too.  He withdrew over last thursday from the Australian futures.  What the hell?? ... What happened?

Just when we get our hopes up that he is ready to roll, this is what we see.  Hope he is OK and did not pick up some injury or something. 

He could not have taken the Mumbai wildcard after withdrawing from the futures though.  He could have and should have got one, otherwise.  Talk about really missing out on chances to do something.

I am truly depressed now.

Jay

[jaydeep]

This is shocking ... But before commenting anything should check if any injury issues, otherwise big lost opportunity for Divij to playing at Mumbai Open.

Jaydeep.

[sameerph]

Unfortunate that Divij has pulled ot of Australia futures.
But I think once he pulls out of an event (after the withdrawel deadline), he cannot go  & play in another event in the same week. I am not sure if this also applies to wild card. Jay can confirm that. This could have led him to miss Mumbai ATP.

[jayakris]

Yes, the rules prohibit that.  This is why I said he could not pay in Mumbai with a wildcard.  The point is why he entered Australia if he was doubtful of going, as he should have decided to play qualies instead at Mumbai.  I just hope he is not injured.  This is the worst time to not be playing, and every extra week takes him more and more away form the confidence level and playing sharpness that he had 4 weeks back.  A 2-week or even 3-week break was necessary after the satellites, but with these 2 weeks also gone, it will be at least 5 weeks break now.  That means the momentum is quite possibly already lost, and he starts from scratch again; and I am not sure how he will look on court next time.

I am telling you, I am seriously depressed about his not playing the futures.  And to think that he also lost a chance for $3650 at Mumbai (ideal money to make a couple of trips abroad for futures NOW) not to mention a top-100 matchup, just makes it worse. 

Come on Divij; hope you are fine.  Just GET THE HELL OUT THERE AND PLAY!  Don't to too much calculations now and listen to any advice except to JUST DO IT!

Jay