Indo-Pak Express advances in Eastbourne
Pakistan tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi and his Indian doubles partner Rohan Bopanna defeated Spanish pair of Pablo Andujar and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-4 to enter the quarter-finals of the AEGON International grass-court tournament underway in Eastbourne.
The Indo-Pak Express - who are busy giving final touches to their preparation ahead of Wimbledon -entered this event after clinching the doubles category of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany.
Venus vaults into quarter-finals
Meanwhile, Venus Williams moved closer to top form with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Ana Ivanovic in a battle of former number one players.
Victory for the five-time Wimbledon winner, who is joining her sister Serena in a return from long-term absence this week, took her into the quarter-finals at the Wimbledon warm-up event.
“I feel I’m playing very tough, playing well on big points,” said Venus, who last competed at the tournament 13 years ago. “These matches have been huge and crucial for me to just get back literally into the swing of things.”
Serena crashes out
Former world number one Serena Williams’ happy comeback suffered a jolt as she was knocked out in the second round with a 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 defeat to top-seeded Vera Zvonareva.
Zvonareva - who registered her second win over the 13-time Grand Slam champion - was given a tough fight which ended in three hours and 12 minutes.
Serena fought back from 5-2 down in the deciding set, and saved three match points at 5-4.However, Zvonareva took little time to break again and a tiring Williams could not muster another rally.
In other matches, third-seed Victoria Azarenka eliminated the last of the British players as she put out Elena Baltacha 7-1, 7-6, while Czech fifth-seed Petra Kvitova defeated holder Ekaterina Makarova 7-6,7-6. Meanwhile, Australian Samantha Stosur, the seventh-seed, beat young Serb Bojana Jovanovski 6-3, 6-2.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2011.
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