Tennis: Aisam, Bopanna ousted in Shanghai

Tsonga crashes out as Nadal progresses to third round.

SHANGHAI: Pakistan tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna of India crashed out of the Shanghai Masters doubles event after suffering a 7-6, 6-4 second-round defeat to Spain’s Nicolas Almagro and Brazil’s Bruno Soares.

The Indo-Pak Express lost their serve twice, losing in just one hour and 16 minutes. Aisam and Bopanna, who were looking to do well in Shanghai to ensure an entry in the ATP World Tour Finals, now have little chance of going through to the tournament.

Tsonga shocked, Nadal advances

Meanwhile, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also crashed out in Shanghai, as Japan’s Kei Nishikori beat the Frenchman 7-6, 4-6, 4-6, while world number two Rafael Nadal defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-2.

Tsonga, the fourth-seed, appeared to be on his way to an easy win when he stepped up the intensity of his game to seal the first-set tie-break.

But Nishikori broke twice in the second set, to level the match and then produced two more breaks in the decider.

Tsonga was disappointed at his loss but admitted Nishikori had been a tough opponent.

“I’m disappointed but I had a good opponent,” he said. “Even if I didn’t play with a lot of energy, I played well.”

Meanwhile, Nadal bounced back from his mauling by Andy Murray in Japan by registering a convincing win over Garcia-Lopez. The world number two came out with clear intent and a string of errors from Garcia-Lopez helped hand Nadal a place in the third round.

Meanwhile, Murray has been handed a bye into the third round as his opponent Dmitry Tursunov pulled out because of injury.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2011.