Purav Raja

Early years

Raja turned pro in year 2005.^[3] He started with ITF tour finding negligible success in singles but continued to excel in doubles. In year 2007 he started emerging as a doubles specialist as he went on to win 4 ITF titles. He followed his success in year 2008 with four more ITF doubles titles.^[4] The same year he reached his first ATP Challenger doubles final at New Delhi Challenger 4 partnering with compatriot Rohan Gajjar.^[5] He won his first doubles ATP Challenger title at 2009 Karshi Challenger with his Australian Partner Sadik Kadir.^[6]

2010–2012

From year 2010 Raja started finding consistent success at ATP Challenger tour. In year 2010 he reached four Challenger finals and won a title at 2010 Dunlop World Challenge in Tokyo with partner Treat Conrad Huey. In 2011 Raja reached three challenger finals winning one of it at 2011 Trofeo Paolo Corazzi. His performance dipped slightly in 2012. He reached only two Challenger finals and could not win a title after three successful years.

2013: Breakthrough, First ATP world tour title

In February, Raja made his Davis Cup debut against Korea. He partnered with Indian doubles legend Leander Paes and won his debut tie.^[7]

2013 proved to be breakthrough year for Raja. He played most of the season with his most successful partner Divij Sharan. The pair performed consistently and reached 5 Challenger finals winning a title at Kyoto Challenger, Japan. Raja and Divij found their biggest success by winning their first ATP world tour title at 2013 Claro Open in Bogota, Colombia. They defeated second-seed French-Dutch combination of Édouard Roger-Vasselin and Igor Sijsling in the finals.^[8]

They also entered qualifying draw at 2013 Wimbledon Championships and successfully qualified for main draw. They lost in first round to Nicholas Monroe and Simon Stadler. This was the first match at a Grand Slam event for both Raja and Divij.^[9]

As a result of good run Raja entered top 100 rankings for the first time in his career. He also finished year inside top 100 doubles rankings at 90.

2014

Raja's performance dipped a bit in year 2014. He could reach only two Challenger finals winning only one title. He won the title with Divij Sharan at Kyoto Challenger in Japan.^[10] His performance at ATP world tour level was also poor with his best finish as a semifinal appearance at Zagreb Indoors. As a result his rankings fell out of top 100 and he finished year at 130.

2015

Raja started season on strong note. He reached to semifinals at Chennai Open. In February, he partnered with Fabrice Martin and made to the finals at Zagreb Indoors. This was Raja's second ATP world tour level final. They lost to second seeds Marin Draganja and Henri Kontinen in the finals.^[11] But after strong performance at ATP world tour level Raja started to struggle with his form. He could make it to only one Challenger final in first half of the season. He made good comeback in second half. He won a title at Portorož Challenger and made it to the finals at Hua Hin Challenger. He finished the year at no. 93 ranking in doubles.

2016: Second ATP world tour title

2016 proved to be very good year for Raja. He played for most part of the year with compatriot Divij Sharan and together they reached 6 ATP Challenger finals winning 4 of it. They won titles at Manchester Trophy Challenger, Aegon Surbiton Trophy, Open Castilla y León and Pune Challenger. The pair also won their second ATP world tour title at Los Cabos Open, Mexico. They defeated pair of Jonathan Erlich and Ken Skupski in the finals.^[12]

In Grand Slams, Raja played his first ever match of French Open main draw along with Ivo Karlovic of Croatia. But they crashed out in the opening round of the men’s doubles event. The duo lost 1–6 2–6 to ninth seeded Polish-Austrian pair of Lukasz Kubot and Alexander Peya.^[13]

2017

Raja continued his good form in year 2017. He started the new season on strong note by reaching to his fourth ATP world tour final at 2017 Chennai Open with partner Divij Sharan. In an all Indian final they lost to the team of Rohan Bopanna and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan.^[14]

He reached three Challenger finals and won all of it. He won Bordeaux Challenger with Divij.^[15] In November, he won back to back titles in two consecutive weeks at Knoxville and Champaign with Leander Paes.^[16]

This was the first year in Raja's career where he played in main draw of all four Grand Slams. He played with Divij Sharan in first three slams of the year and partnered with Leander Paes for US Open. He crashed out in opening round at Australian Open, reached third round at French Open and lost in second round at Wimbledon and US Open.

In September, Raja played his second Davis Cup match with Rohan Bopanna in world group play-offs against Canada. But they lost to pair of Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil.^[17]

Doubles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Jul 2013	Colombia Open, Columbia	250 Series	Hard	Divij Sharan	Édouard Roger-Vasselin Igor Sijsling	7–6(7–4), 7–6(7–3)
Loss	1–1	Feb 2015	Zagreb Indoors, Croatia	250 Series	Hard (i)	Fabrice Martin	Marin Draganja Henri Kontinen	4–6, 4–6
Win	2–1	Aug 2016	Los Cabos Open, Mexico	250 Series	Hard	Divij Sharan	Jonathan Erlich Ken Skupski	7–6(7–4), 7–6(7–3)
Loss	2–2	Jan 2017	Chennai Open, India	250 Series	Hard	Divij Sharan	Rohan Bopanna Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan	3–6, 4–6

Doubles: 32 (14–18)

Outcome	W–L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
Loss	0–1	August 2008	New Delhi 4, India	Hard	Rohan Gajjar	Harsh Mankad Ashutosh Singh	6–4, 4–6, [9–11]
Win	1–1	August 2009	Karshi, Uzbekistan	Hard	Sadik Kadir	Andis Juška Deniss Pavlovs	6–3, 7–6(7–4)
Loss	1–2	June 2010	Rome 3, Italy	Clay	Sadik Kadir	Santiago González Travis Rettenmaier	2–6, 4–6
Loss	1–3	June 2010	Reggio Emilia, Italy	Clay	Sadik Kadir	Philipp Oswald Martin Slanar	2–6, 7–5, [6–10]
Loss	1–4	August 2010	Beijing, China	Hard	Sadik Kadir	Pierre-Ludovic Duclos Artem Sitak	6–7(4–7), 6–7(5–7)
Win	2–4	November 2010	Toyota, Japan	Carpet (i)	Treat Conrad Huey	Tasuku Iwami Hiroki Kondo	6–1, 6–2
Win	3–4	May 2011	Cremona, Italy	Hard	Treat Conrad Huey	Tomasz Bednarek Mateusz Kowalczyk	6–1, 6–2
Loss	3–5	July 2011	Recanati, Italy	Hard	Federico Gaio	Frederik Nielsen Ken Skupski	4–6, 5–7
Loss	3–6	October 2011	Seoul, South Korea	Hard	Divij Sharan	Sanchai Ratiwatana Sonchat Ratiwatana	4–6, 6–7(3–7)
Loss	3–7	June 2012	Fürth, Germany	Clay	Rameez Junaid	Arnau Brugués-Davi João Sousa	5–7, 7–6(7–4), [9–11]
Loss	3–8	November 2012	Loughborough, United Kingdom	Hard	Divij Sharan	James Cerretani Adil Shamasdin	4–6, 5–7
Win	4–8	March 2013	Kyoto, Japan	Carpet	Divij Sharan	Chris Guccione Matt Reid	6–4, 7–5
Loss	4–9	April 2013	Leon, Mexico	Hard	Divij Sharan	Chris Guccione Matt Reid	3–6, 5–7
Loss	4–10	May 2013	Johannesburg, South Africa	Hard	Divij Sharan	Prakash Amritraj Rajeev Ram	6–7(1–7), 6–7(1–7)
Loss	4–11	June 2013	Nottingham, United Kingdom	Grass	Divij Sharan	Sanchai Ratiwatana Sonchat Ratiwatana	7–6(7–5), 6–7(3–7), [8–10]
Loss	4–12	October 2013	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	Hard	Divij Sharan	Mikhail Elgin Teymuraz Gabashvili	4–6, 4–6
Win	5–12	March 2014	Kyoto, Japan	Carpet	Divij Sharan	Sanchai Ratiwatana Michael Venus	5–7, 7–6(7–3), [10–4]
Loss	5–13	August 2014	Aptos, United States	Hard	Sanam Singh	Ruben Bemelmans Laurynas Grigelis	3–6, 6–4, [9–11]
Loss	5–14	March 2015	Guangzhou, China	Hard	Fabrice Martin	Daniel Muñoz de la Nava Aleksandr Nedovyesov	2–6, 5–7
Win	6–14	August 2015	Portorož, Slovenia	Hard	Fabrice Martin	Alexander Bury Andreas Siljeström	7–6(7–5), 4–6, [18–16]
Loss	6–15	November 2015	Hua Hin, Thailand	Hard	Andre Begemann	Lee Hsin-han Lu Yen-hsun	Walkover
Loss	6–16	April 2016	Savannah, United States	Clay	Divij Sharan	Brian Baker Ryan Harrison	7–5, 6–7(4–7), [8–10]
Win	7–16	June 2016	Manchester, United Kingdom	Grass	Divij Sharan	Ken Skupski Neal Skupski	6–3, 3–6, [11–9]
Win	8–16	June 2016	Surbiton, United Kingdom	Grass	Divij Sharan	Ken Skupski Neal Skupski	6–4, 7–6(7–3)
Win	9–16	July 2016	Segovia, Spain	Hard	Divij Sharan	Quino Muñoz Akira Santillan	6–3, 4–6, [10–8]
Win	10–16	October 2016	Pune, India	Hard	Divij Sharan	Luca Margaroli Hugo Nys	3–6, 6–3, [11–9]
Loss	10–17	November 2016	Bratislava, Slovakia	Hard	Divij Sharan	Ken Skupski Neal Skupski	6–4, 3–6, [5–10]
Win	11–17	May 2017	Bordeaux, France	Clay	Divij Sharan	Santiago González Artem Sitak	6–4, 6–4
Win	12–17	November 2017	Knoxville, United States	Hard (i)	Leander Paes	James Cerretani John-Patrick Smith	7–6(7–4), 7–6(7–4)
Win	13–17	November 2017	Champaign, United States	Hard (i)	Leander Paes	Ruan Roelofse Joe Salisbury	6–3, 6–7(5–7), [10–5]
Loss	13–18	March 2018	Lille, France	Hard	Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan	Hugo Nys Tim Puetz	6–7(3–7), 6–1, [7–10]
Win	14–18	September 2018	Istanbul, Turkey	Hard	Rameez Junaid	Timur Khabibulin Vladyslav Manafov	7–6(7–4), 4–6, [10–7]