Indo-Pak Express loses steam

Aisam, Bopanna failed to reach final of yet another tournament as the pair was ousted in the semi-finals.

Pakistan’s Aisamul Haq Qureshi and his Indian doubles partner Rohan Bopanna failed to reach the final of yet another tournament as the pair was ousted in the semi-finals of the International Sydney tournament.

The Asian pair was defeated by Lukas Dlouhy from the Czech Republic and Paul Hanley from Australia 5-7, 6-4, 8-10.

After losing their first set, Aisam and Bopanna upped their game to give their opponents a tough time in the second, hitting three aces and saving all their break points. But the duo succumbed to Dlouhy and Hanley once again, failing to win any break points throughout the entire match.

Earlier, the Asian pair had overpowered Carsten Ball from the US and Marinko Matosevic of Bosnia-Herzegovina 6-2, 6-3 in the opening round, and were given a walk over in the quarter-finals due to Julien Benneteau’s hand infection. Dlouhy and Hanley will now meet top-seeds Bob and Mike Bryan in the final.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2011.