Aisam, Boppana cruise into semis

KARACHI: Aisamul Haq Qureshi and Rohan Boppana brought an end to the perfect streak of brothers Bob and Mike Bryan as they defeated the American pair 7-6 (6), 7-5 in the quarter-final of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic ATP Tour event in Washington.

The Pakistan-India pair avenged their previous defeat at the Los Angeles quarter-final  and toppled the Bryan brothers, who had not lost any match here since 2003.

The first set saw both pairs doggedly holding onto their own service games. Aisam and Bopanna lost only three first serve points throughout the set.

In the first set at tie-break, the Bryans took the advantage before Aisam and Bopanna bounced back to win two points on the American’s serve and take the lead.

But the American pair was able to pull back the one point advantage to make it 5-6 on their own serve.

However, Aisam and Bopanna raised their game and secured another point after which they served out the set at 7-6 and closed the first set tie-break at 8-6.

The precarious situation continued in the second set as Aisam and Bopanna held all 18 of the first serve points. They suffered the only break of serve in the last game of the match, when down 5-6.

The sub-continental pair won 73 out of the 137 points played as they sealed the victory 7-5.

Aisam and Bopanna will now face the Americans Mardy Fish and Mark Knowles in the semi-final.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2010.