Purav Raja ( ; born 7 December 1985) is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. He specializes in doubles and competes on the ATP World Tour. He has 2 ATP world tour level titles in men's doubles. He represents India in the Davis Cup.

Personal and early life

Purav Raja grew up in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

and began playing tennis when he was 7 years old. He cites indoor carpet as his preferred surface, with his favourite shot being the

drop shot A drop shot is a shot in some racket sports in which the ball (or birdie) is hit relatively softly, sometimes with topspin or backspin, so that it lands just over and close to the net. A well-placed and well-timed drop shot will make it difficu ...

. Raja was educated at Millfield in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. Raja is very active in the Ananda Ashran orphanage and The Fellowship of the Physically Handicapped in Mumbai. He splits his training between Mumbai and

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...

Professional career

Early years

Raja turned pro in year 2005. 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. The same year he reached his first ATP Challenger doubles final at New Delhi Challenger 4 partnering with compatriot

Rohan Gajjar Rohan Gajjar (born 8 May 1984) is an Indian former professional tennis player. Gajjar, who comes from Mumbai, played collegiate tennis for the University of Arkansas between 2003 and 2006, while studying for a degree in marketing. He was named ...

. He won his first doubles ATP Challenger title at 2009 Karshi Challenger with his Australian Partner

Sadik Kadir Sadik Kadir (born 27 July 1981) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. Biography Originally from the Indonesian city of Surabaya, Kadir later grew up in Sydney. Kadir made two main draw appearances at the Australian Open. At ...

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 Treat Conrad Huey (; born August 28, 1985) is a Filipino-American tennis player who represents the Philippines in international competitions. He turned professional in 2008 and he started representing the Philippines in the Davis Cup and the ...

. 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 Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players ever. He holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes won eight men's ...

and won his debut tie. 2013 proved to be breakthrough year for Raja. He played most of the season with his most successful partner

Divij Sharan Divij Sharan (born 2 March 1986) is an Indian professional tennis player. He specialises in doubles and competes on the ATP World Tour. He has won 5 ATP World Tour titles in men's doubles and represents India in the Davis Cup. He won a gold me ...

. 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 Bogotá, Colombia. They defeated second-seed French-Dutch combination of

Édouard Roger-Vasselin Édouard Roger-Vasselin (; born 28 November 1983) is a French professional tennis player who primarily specialises in doubles. He won his first Grand Slam title at the 2014 French Open, winning the men's doubles partnering Julien Benneteau, a ...

and

Igor Sijsling Igor Sijsling (; born 18 August 1987) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. Sijsling reached his career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 52 on 17 February 2014. His biggest accomplishment is reaching the final of Australian Open Do ...

in the finals. They also entered qualifying draw at 2013 Wimbledon Championships and successfully qualified for main draw. They lost in first round to

Nicholas Monroe Benjamin Nicholas Monroe (born April 12, 1982) is an American professional tennis player. He has won 4 ATP World Tour doubles titles and 13 ATP Challenger Tour titles in his career. College career Monroe had a highly successful college caree ...

and

Simon Stadler Simon Stadler (; born 20 July 1983 in Heidelberg, West Germany) is a German retired professional left-handed tennis player. He reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 140 in February 2009 and his career-high doubles ranking of world ...

. This was the first match at a Grand Slam event for both Raja and Divij. 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

at Kyoto Challenger in Japan. His performance at ATP world tour level was also poor with his best finish as a semifinal appearance at

Zagreb Indoors The Zagreb Indoors (currently sponsored by PBZ) was a men's tennis event on the ATP Tour held in the Croatian capital of Zagreb. In 1996 and 1997 the tournament was named Croatian Indoors. From 2009 until 2015, it was a part of the ATP 250 Series ...

. 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 Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. In February, he partnered with

Fabrice Martin Fabrice Martin (; born 11 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 228 on 23 July 2012, and his highest ATP doubles ranking, world No. 22, on 3 February 2020. Career 2019: ...

and made to the finals at

. This was Raja's second ATP world tour level final. They lost to second seeds

Marin Draganja Marin Draganja (; born 13 May 1991) is a Croatian professional tennis player and competes mainly on the ATP World Tour in doubles. Draganja reached his highest ATP singles ranking, No. 550 on 29 April 2013, and his highest ATP doubles ranking, ...

and

Henri Kontinen Henri Kontinen (; born 19 June 1990) is an inactive Finnish professional tennis player who is a former List of ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles. After being forced to end his singles career at a young age due to ...

in the finals. 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

and together they reached 6 ATP Challenger finals winning 4 of it. They won titles at

Manchester Trophy Challenger The Manchester Trophy is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was previously part of the ATP Challenger Tour and now currently part of the ITF Women's Circuit. It is held annually at the Northern Lawn Tennis Club ...

Aegon Surbiton Trophy The Surbiton Trophy is a tennis tournament for male and female professional players played on grass courts. The event was held annually in Surbiton, England, from 1997 through 2008 as part of the ATP Challenger Series and ITF Women's Circuit. In ...

Open Castilla y León The Open Castilla y León is a professional tennis tournament played on Tennis court#Hard courts, outdoor hard courts. It is currently part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ATP Challenger Tour, Challenger Tour and the International ...

and Pune Challenger. The pair also won their second ATP world tour title at

Los Cabos Open The Los Cabos Open is a professional men's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It is part of the ATP Tour 250 series of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. It is held annually in August in Los Cabos, Baja California ...

, Mexico. They defeated pair of

Jonathan Erlich Jonathan Dario "Yoni" Erlich ( he, יונתן דאריו "יוני" ארליך, born 5 April 1977) is an Israeli former professional tennis player. During his career, he was mainly a doubles specialist, having won the men's doubles title at the ...

and

Ken Skupski Ken Skupski Jr. (born 9 April 1983) is a British former professional tennis player who specialised in doubles. He reached his career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 44 in July 2010, and won seven titles on the ATP Tour, most notably the ...

in the finals. In Grand Slams, Raja played his first ever match of

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

main draw along with

Ivo Karlović Ivo Karlović (; born 28 February 1979) is a former Croatian professional tennis player. His height of 211 cm (6 ft 11 in) makes him the joint tallest ranked tennis player in history, along with Reilly Opelka. He has won eight ATP sin ...

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

Łukasz Kubot Łukasz Kubot (; born 16 May 1982) is a Polish professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. He is a two-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having won the 2014 Australian Open with Robert Lindstedt, as well as the 2017 W ...

and

Alexander Peya Alexander Peya (born 27 June 1980) is an Austrian male tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking of world no. 92 in April 2007. His career-high doubles ranking is World No. 3, first achieved in August 2013. In September 2008 Peya h ...

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

. In an all Indian final they lost to the team of

Rohan Bopanna Rohan Bopanna ( ; born 4 March 1980) is an Indian professional tennis player. His singles career-high ranking was world No. 213 in 2007 and his career-high ranking in doubles was world No. 3 on 22 July 2013. He has been a member of the Indian ...

and

Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (born 20 October 1988) is an Indian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ranking of No. 64 achieved on 18 March 2019. He won the doubles title with Rohan Bopanna at the 2017 Chennai Open, in a historic final ...

. He reached three Challenger finals and won all of it. He won Bordeaux Challenger with Divij. In November, he won back to back titles in two consecutive weeks at

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

and

Champaign Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metropo ...

with

. This was the first year in Raja's career where he played in main draw of all four Grand Slams. He played with

in first three slams of the year and partnered with

for US Open. He crashed out in opening round at

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

, reached third round at

and lost in second round at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

and US Open. In September, Raja played his second Davis Cup match with

in world group play-offs against Canada. But they lost to pair of

Daniel Nestor Daniel Mark Nestor ( ; sr, Данијел Нестор, Danijel Nestor; born September 4, 1972) is a Canadian former professional tennis player. Nestor won 91 men's doubles titles (with 11 different partners), including an Olympic gold medal ...

and

Vasek Pospisil Vasek Pospisil ( ; cs, Vašek Pospíšil, ; known in born June 23, 1990) is a Canadian professional tennis player. Pospisil has a career-high world singles ranking of No. 25, and No. 4 in doubles. Along with partner Jack Sock, he won the 2014 ...

. Raja reached his career best ranking of 52 on 17 July 2017 and finished the year with doubles ranking of 60.

2018

Raja registered his best result at Australian Open by reaching third round. His partner at the event was

. Raja reached four ATP Challenger finals in 2018. He won two titles at Amex-Istanbul Challenger and Wolffkran Open while finishing as runner-up at Play in Challenger and

Bengaluru Open The Bengaluru Open is a professional tennis tournament played on hard courts. It is currently part of the ATP Challenger Tour. It is held annually in Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of ...

. On ATP tour he reached only two semifinals and had first round exit at 10 events. At the lack of poor performance on ATP world tour, he finished year at ranking of 90.

ATP career finals

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

Challenger finals

Doubles: 44 (21–23)

Doubles performance timeline

''Updated through the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Raja, Purav 1985 births Living people Indian male tennis players People educated at Millfield