Indian youngster Yuki Bhambri is just four places away from making it to the top-100 in the men's tennis singles rankings, following his impressive run in the just-concluded Taiwan Challenger.
The 23-year-old New Delhi lad jumped as many as 21 places following the end of the ATP Challenger tournament on Sunday, where he finished runners-up, after a closely-fought final against world number 75 Hyeon Chung.
The Indian lost the summit clash 7-5, 6-4 to the second seeded Korean in one hour and 40 minutes.
Bhambri has now climbed up a whopping 41 spots in the men's singles rankings in a span of two weeks -- first, after lifting the Shanghai Challenger earlier this month following a win against China's Wu Di, and second, after representing India in the Davis Cup tie against Czech Republic, where he lost both the singles clashes against Lukas Rosol and Jiri Vesely.
However, making it to the final of the Taiwan challenger, following a straight sets win over world number 40 Vesely helped him clinch 75 ranking points on Saturday, as well as avenge the earlier Davis Cup loss.
It was only Bhambri's fifth win over a top-100 player and the second over a top-50 player. A big win in one of his forthcoming matches can now see him get into the top-100.
Bhambri, who has won the Australian Open boys' singles title in 2009, is set to begin his quest as he goes on to ply his trade in the Tashkent Challenger next week. However, for now, he has opted for a week of rest.
The biggest win of his career so far has been over Italy's world number 16 Fabio Fognini, when he managed a victory at the Chennai Open last year.
Meanwhile, the current rankings of the Indian tennis stars are as follows:
Men's singles
Somdev Devavarman - lost five places to be ranked 171.
Saketh Myneni - moved up a place to be ranked 198.
Men's Doubles
Leander Paes - lost two places to be ranked 35.
Rohan Bopanna - unchanged at 12.
Women's Doubles
Sania Mirza - still the top seed.
