Australian Open: Aisam, Rojer cruise into 2nd round

Pak-Dutch pair won in straight sets yesterday.


Afp January 16, 2013
With the upset at the Apia International at the beginning of the year, Aisam and Rojer turned tables around with a win in their first match at the Australian Open. PHOTO: FILE AFP

MELBOURNE: Aisamul Haq Qureshi and his Dutch partner Jean Julien Rojer, the six-seeded pair, cruised into the second round of the Australian Open with a 6-3, 6-1 win over David Goffin and Simon Stadler yesterday.

Aisam and Rojer had a poor start to the year when they crashed out of the Apia International Sydney in the first round but the straight-sets win will give them a timely boost ahead of the crunch matches.

In another match, a dominant Maria Sharapova routed young Japanese Misaki Doi 6-0, 6-0 to book a third-round clash with seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams. Venus, who disposed of France’s Alize Cornet 6-3, 6-3, has been battling injury and illness in the past two years and her ranking has dropped.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic oozed class in an outstanding performance as he wasted little time in dispatching America’s Ryan Harrison 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.

Radwanska builds on season wins

Elsewhere, fourth-seed Agnieszka Radwanska built on her sizzling start to the season to progress.

Radwanska stormed to her 11th straight victory of the year as she beat Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3, 6-3 and now faces Britain’s Heather Watson.

David Ferrer was stretched to four sets and five match points before finally clinching a 6-0, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 win in two hours 38min on Margaret Court Arena. Tomas Berdych, coming off the Czech Republic’s Davis Cup victory over Spain in Prague last November, was too strong for the 92nd-ranked Rufin, winning 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 in exactly two hours.

“I had to work hard to win in three sets,” said Berdych. “It was a better match for me from the first round and that’s what I always like to do — improve.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17th, 2013.

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