Aisam, Rojer qualify for World Tour Finals

Doubles pair seal berth after second-round win at Paris Masters; reach quarter-finals.

PARIS:

Pakistan tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi and his Dutch partner Jean-Julien Rojer became the seventh doubles team to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals to be held at The O2 in London from November 5.

The Pakistani-Dutch pair secured their place after surviving a marathon encounter against Feliciano Lopez and Nenad Zimonjic for a 6-4, 6-7(3), 17-15 victory in one hour and 56 minutes for a place in the Paribas Masters quarter-finals yesterday. Qureshi and Rojer will be making their team debut at the season-ending championships.

They have a 32-21 match record on the season, highlighted by two ATP World Tour titles at the Estoril Open and Gerry Weber Open. Qureshi partnered with Rohan Bopanna at the prestigious event last year.

Murray shocked by unseeded Janowicz

Meanwhile in the singles event, towering Polish qualifier Jerzy Janowicz upset Andy Murray 5-7, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 to complete the early exit of the elite from the Paris Masters.

Murray, seeded third, missed a match point as he followed second-seed Novak Djokovic out the door of the Bercy arena 24 hours after the tepid Serb had been beaten by American Sam Querrey.

The 21-year-old winner scored the biggest win of his career on his second match point and fell to the ground with his hands over his eyes lying on the court in pure joy.

“This is an unbelievable week for me,” said Janowicz. “I don’t know what to say after this match. I still don’t think this is happening.

“Now I am playing my best tennis in my whole life and hope I am not finished.”

Murray did not want to predict how the exits of himself and Djokovic might affect their showings in London.

“Only time will tell really,” said Murray. “A lot of the players will have had slightly different run-ins to the O2. Obviously Novak and I lost early this week; Roger didn’t play, and then I think the rest of the guys are still in here.”

Murray came out firing against the youngster’s huge serve and won the opening set on a break of serve through his opponent’s double-fault.

But the challenger came back in the second after going down a break, putting Murray on the back foot from a pair of sloppy forehands to level at 5-5 after the Scot had served for victory while putting a forehand cross-court wide on match point.

As the set went to a tiebreak, Janowicz took more initiative, winning it on a volleyed winner off a weak Murray dropshot. The Pole seized the match in the final set with two breaks of serve and a 5-1 lead before putting it away two games later.

Murray

“A lot of the players will have had slightly different run-ins to the O2. Obviously Novak Djokovic and I lost early this week; Roger Federer didn’t play, and then I think the rest of the guys are still in here.”

Janowicz

“This has been an unbelievable week. I don’t know what to say after this match. I still don’t think this is happening. Now I
am playing my best tennis in my whole life and hope I am not finished.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2012.