Divij, Raja ousted from St. Petersburg Open

St Petersburg: Divij Sharan and Purav Raja suffered their second successive first round defeat as they bowed out of the St. Petersburg Open after a 6-7(6) 4-6 defeat against Russians Victor Baluda and Konstantin Kravchuk.

The Indian pair had also bowed out of the Luxembourg Challenger after the first round defeat. Before that they had a superb US Open campaign, where they reached round of 16. The Indians had two set points in the first tie break but lost four straight points to hand lead to the local pair. The two teams played solid serve games as no break featured in the first set. However, in the second set Divij and Raja dropped serve in the fifth on deuce. Both teams went on to hold serves thereafter and the Russians walked away with the match. In all, Divij and Raja saved seven of the eight break points they faced whereas the Russians saved both. PTI