Aisam, Rojer crash out of Stockholm Open

Duo beaten in semi-final; Top seed Stosur ousts Ivanonic to enter final.

STOCKHOLM:

Second seeds Aisamul Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands lost the doubles semi-final to Marcelo Melo and Joao Soares yesterday at the Stockholm Open.

Aisam and Rojer, who had qualified for the semi-final on Friday as a result of their opponents’ retirement, were defeated by the Brazilian duo 7-5, 3-6, 10-4.

Stosur books final with Wozniacki at Kremlin

Meanwhile, Samantha Stosur battled back from a set down to beat fourth seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 yesterday on her way to the final of the Kremlin Cup.

Stosur will next face former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, who also needed three sets to get past Swede Sofia Arvidsson 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4.

Ivanovic, 24, was in complete command in the opening set playing aggressive tennis to produce three breaks for a 1-0 lead, as 28-year-old Stosur struggled with her serve. It was the eighth game of the second set when Stosur broke to level at 1-1 after 39 more minutes on court. In the deciding set, Stosur broke twice to enter her season’s second final.

“She (Ivanovic) was making good first shots in the rally, which forced me to play defensively,” said Stosur.

“But in the second set I started serving a lot better and played much more accurate on return.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2012.