PARIS: Pakistan tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi and his Dutch partner Jean-Julien Rojer downed Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor in straight sets to reach the semi-finals of the Paris Masters yesterday.
Aisam and Rojer, who sealed their place at the ATP World Tour Finals in London on Thursday, registered a 6-3, 6-4 win in a match that lasted one hour and 15 minutes.
Meanwhile in the singles event, Gilles Simon thrilled home fans by reaching the semi-finals as he beat Czech fifth-seed Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-4.
Simon has been making his own luck all week after starting out by beating former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis and then putting out lucky loser Victor Hanescu, who replaced absent top-seed Roger Federer in the draw.
Berdych will now head to London to take his place for Monday’s start of the season-ending World Tour Finals.
Simon, ranked 20th and the Bangkok finalist in September, needed four set points and almost an hour to win the opener against Berdych. He then recovered from a break down in the second to notch the popular victory.
Berdych has been on a roll, winning 22 of his last 26 matches at the Masters event which he won in 2005. He has now lost to Simon in five of seven matches.
“He was just too good today, he made no mistakes at all,” said Berdych. “I lost to a better player today, he played well and deserved to win.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2012.
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Way to go Aisaam - you Rock and Pakistan loves you!!