Aisam, Bopanna cruise into LA ATP semis
KARACHI:
Aisamul Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna defeated French Arnaud Clement and Israel’s Jonathan Erlich 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 14-12 in the quarter-final of the Los Angeles ATP championship, a US $619,500 hard court event.
The subcontinental duo was broken in the first game of the match and succumbed to an opening-set embarrassment. They started the second set by losing the first game but fought back when they broke their opponents serve to level back to 3-3 and forced a tie break in the second set at 6-6. They started off the tie-break by losing a point but then went on to win five straight points to secure the set. In the deciding super tie break Aisam and Rohan were again a match point down at 7-9 but resisted the Arnaud and Erlich’s attempts and sealed the victory.
Samir clinches his first title
Pakistan’s top and only international junior tennis player Samir Iftikhar staged a magnificent fight back to defeat Luxemburg’s Tom Dierich 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to lift the ITF Amman Open Junior World Ranking tournament 2 title. (please check what the 2 is)
He is the second junior player from Pakistan after Aisam in the past 10 years to win the ITF Junior World Ranking title. Samir won the doubles title in the first leg of ITF Amman Open Junior World Ranking tournament last week.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 1st, 2010.
Aisamul Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna defeated French Arnaud Clement and Israel’s Jonathan Erlich 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 14-12 in the quarter-final of the Los Angeles ATP championship, a US $619,500 hard court event.
The subcontinental duo was broken in the first game of the match and succumbed to an opening-set embarrassment. They started the second set by losing the first game but fought back when they broke their opponents serve to level back to 3-3 and forced a tie break in the second set at 6-6. They started off the tie-break by losing a point but then went on to win five straight points to secure the set. In the deciding super tie break Aisam and Rohan were again a match point down at 7-9 but resisted the Arnaud and Erlich’s attempts and sealed the victory.
Samir clinches his first title
Pakistan’s top and only international junior tennis player Samir Iftikhar staged a magnificent fight back to defeat Luxemburg’s Tom Dierich 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to lift the ITF Amman Open Junior World Ranking tournament 2 title. (please check what the 2 is)
He is the second junior player from Pakistan after Aisam in the past 10 years to win the ITF Junior World Ranking title. Samir won the doubles title in the first leg of ITF Amman Open Junior World Ranking tournament last week.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 1st, 2010.