SHANGHAI:
Pakistan tennis ace Aisamul Haq Queshi and his Dutch partner Jean-Julien Rojer were knocked out of the doubles event at the Shanghai Masters after losing to Britons Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins in the quarter finals.
Fleming and Hutchins saved two match points to beat the sixth-seeded pair of Aisam and Rojer 7-6(2), 4-6, 12-10 in two hours and 14 minutes.
In the second round on Thursday, Aisam and Rojer had beaten Spaniards Pablo Andujar and Marc Lopez to qualify for the quarter finals. They were given a bye in their first round. Last year, Aisam and his then Indian partner Rohan Bopanna had crashed out of the Shanghai Masters in the second round.
Murray sets up semis against Federer
Meanwhile, in the singles draw, Andy Murray maintained his perfect record at the Shanghai Masters yesterday, battling back from a set down against unseeded Radek Stepanek to reach the semi-finals.
The US Open champion was staring defeat in the face and searching in vain for inspiration but recovered to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in two hours and 18 minutes.
“It was quite a scrappy first couple of sets,” said Murray. “The second set I managed to get a break, got a bit of momentum.
“I dictated a majority of the points at the end of the match and I needed to because he was playing with a lot of variety, making it hard for me.”
Top-ranked Roger Federer, who beat Murray in the Wimbledon final to earn a 17th Grand Slam title, was largely untroubled against Croatia’s Marin Cilic although he did waver when attempting to serve out the match.
The Swiss squandered a match point at 5-3 and Cilic took advantage to break for the second time in the match.
Federer was not detained for much longer, however, earning two more match points in the following game and converting the first when Cilic fired a forehand long.
Djokovic to meet Berdych in last-four
Second-seed Novak Djokovic beat German veteran Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-3, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on dislodging Federer from the top of the rankings.
“I feel good,” said Djokovic. “I’ve been winning a lot of matches in the last period, so it’s something that is always welcome when you want to have confidence, when you want to feel good about yourself on the court.”
Djokovic will play Tomas Berdych in the last-four, who came out on top against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a battle between two of the contenders to reach next month’s ATP World Tour Finals. The Czech fourth-seed grabbed a crucial break against the powerful Frenchman in the eighth game of the first set and edged the second set tie-break to win 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
“It was a really solid game,” said Berdych. “The biggest difference between me and Jo was I was able to take the small chances during the first and especially the second set.”
Murray
“I dictated a majority of the points at the end of the match and I needed to because he [Stepanek] was playing with a lot of variety.”
Djokovic
“I’ve been winning a lot of matches, so it’s something that is always welcome when you want to have confidence and feel good about yourself.”
Berdych
“The biggest difference between me and Jo was I was able to take the small chances during the first and especially the second set.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 13th, 2012.
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