Aisam, Rojer shown the Nice door

Pair crashes out of Rome event after straight-sets defeat by Bryan brothers.

Mike and Bob Bryan avenged their Estoril Open final defeat at the hands of Aisamul Haq Qureshi and Rojer-Jean Julien by defeating the pair 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-final of the Nice Open yesterday.

Aisam and Rojer had won their previous two matches with ease but were up against the top-seeds for a place in the final of the event as the Pakistani looked for precious ranking points ahead of the London Olympics. The Pakistani-Dutch pairing had beaten US James Cerretani and Brazilian Andre Sa 7-5, 6-2 in the opening round and got the better of the US duo Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinal.

However, the Bryans proved to be far better in the semi-final and will now face Olivier Marach and Filip Polasek in the final after the pair beat Paul Hanley and Julian Knowle 6-4, 5-7, 10-7 in the other semi-final.

Aisam, who is currently 16th in the individual doubles rankings, earned 90 points by making it to the semi-finals but needs another 1,470 in the French Open to make his way back into the top-10, the requirement to be eligible for the London Olympics.

Meanwhile, Spaniard Nicolas Almagro beat French Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-1 to reach the final of the men’s event. Almagro will face Nikolay Davydenko or Brian Baker in the final today.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2012.