Divij, Raja win 1st ATP title of 2016 season, 2nd of career

India's Divij Sharan and Purav Raja won their second doubles title at the ATP World Tour level, clinching the Los Kabos trophy with a tight win over Jonathan Erlich and Ken Skupski, here.
The unseeded Indians won the summit clash of the USD 808,995 ATP 250 event 7-6 (4) 7-6(3) against the Israeli-British combo, taking their first title of the 2016 season.
They had won their first title together in 2013 when they pocketed the Bogota (Colombia) trophy.
The one hour and 42-minute clash was a very close affair with only six points separating the two pairs, who broke each other twice in the contest.

Raja dropped his serve in the fourth game in the first set and consequently they trailed 2-5. However the Indians broke the rivals back in the ninth and took the opening set in the tie breaker.
Raja and Sharan broke the opponents early in the second game in the second set and went up 5-3. However they were broken again and the second set too was decided via tie breaker.

They had enjoyed a good run in the last few weeks on the ATP Tour, reaching the semifinals at Atlanta Open, Swiss Open and Hall of Fame Tennis Championships.
They split USD 38,940 and earned 250 ranking points each and are expected to move in the range of 69 and 73 in the ATP doubles rankings.

"Purav and I have been working together and it feels great that our efforts are finally paying off. We have had some good results over the last couple of months so we are obviously playing well. Some of the losses in the semis were really close. Happy that we came through this week. This win will definitely give us more confidence for the next set of tournaments," Sharan told PTI.