PARIS: Aisamul Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer sailed past their opponents Treat Conrad Huey and Dominic Inglot with a convincing 6-1,6-4 win to march into the quarter-finals of the French Open.
The Pakistani and Dutch duo, who are seeded 10th in the tournament, looked in complete control throughout the match as they registered their place in the fourth round.
Aisam, who is now just inches away from realising his Olympic dream, and his partner took only 77 minutes to overcome the opponents and will now take on third-seeded Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic.
Top-seed Azarena ousted
In women’s singles, Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia downed top-seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus to pull off a major upset in the fourth round.
The 15th seed won 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) to set up a quarter-final match with either Samantha Stosur of Australia or Sloane Stephens of the US.
Azarenka won the Australian Open in January and had been expected to coast past Cibulkova having beaten her seven out of eight times previously.
But the little Slovakian, who reached the semi-finals in 2009, handled the cold, windy conditions on the Suzanne Lenglen court far better than the tall Belarusian.
“It wasn’t satisfying at all, not satisfying being out there playing like that,” said Azarenka. “I do not know what to find positive in that. No excuses, just a bad performance.”
In another upset, Sara Errani of Italy, seeded 21, defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 6-0, 7-5.
Djokovic fights back
In the men’s draw, top-seed Novak Djokovic staged
an epic fourth-round recovery to defeat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 4-6, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 and salvaged his dream of making Grand Slam history.
The world number one had looked down and out as he racked up a catalogue of unforced errors under a leaden Parisian sky to fall towards the precipice of an early exit.
A lacklustre Djokovic, however, got the upper hand in the third and began to wear down his opponent before closing out the match in four hours 18 minutes.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer beat David Goffin of Belgium 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 4th, 2012.
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