Aisam, Bopanna ousted in 1st round

Indo-Pak Express rue poor form ahead of US Open.

WINSTON-SALEM: Aisamul Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna crashed out of the Winston-Salem Open doubles tournament in the first-round, losing 6-4, 6-4 against the Balkan pair of Lukas Dlouhy and Horia Tecau in s fairly one-sided hardcourt encounter.

Bopanna and Qureshi’s lacklustre form of late has seen them crash out of four straight doubles tournaments, including a first-round exit at Wimbledon and three other quarter-final exits. The duo, though, will be hoping to revitalise itself in the upcoming US Open where they lost to top-seeds Bob and Mike Bryan in last year’s final.

Roddick finally wins a match

Elsewhere in the tournament, Andy Roddick finally won his first match of the summer, advancing to the second round with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

The American, short of match fitness, managed to impressively avoid even a single break point against his 107th-ranked French opponent, while serving 11 aces to eventually register a comfortable victory.

“It’s tough coming off an injury [because] you tend to over-play and over-compensate,” said Roddick. “I served well and tried not to give anything away.”

Local boy John Isner, seeded fourth, also won his opening match in the last event before the US Open on Monday. The Wimbledon marathon man defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 in a 17-ace performance.

Jankovic crashes out after quake

Meanwhile, Jelena Jankovic was sent crashing out of the New Haven Open after being upset by Elena Vesnina in a match disrupted by an east coast earthquake.

The seventh-seed was unable to shake off the two-hour delay caused by the 5.8 magnitude quake, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Jankovic was already losing 2-0 in the opening set when the quake struck, forcing the evacuation of the tennis facility.

Wozniacki breezes through

Elsewhere, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki eased through to the third round of the tournament after defeating Polona Hercog 6-3, 6-0 in one of the more one-sided matches of the tournament so far.

The world number one, who overwhelmed her Slovenian opponent in 73 minutes, had lost her two previous matches and was in need of victories ahead of the US Open.

She now faces Christina McHale, who earlier beat her in Cincinnati. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th,  2011.