Aisam, Rojer’s semis hopes end

Doubes pair loses second successive match at ATP World Tour Finals.

Pakistan tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi and his Dutch partner Jean-Julien Rojer’s semi-final hopes vanished after the doubles pair suffered their second successive defeat at the ATP World Tour finals. The pair lost to long-time nemesis Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan of the US.

Aisam and Rojer were beaten by the top seeds 7-5, 6-4 in their second round-robin match on Thursday. They had lost their first match to India’s Leander Paes and Czech Radek Sepanek 6-4, 7-5 and are now placed last in their group.

The pair will now play Spanish duo Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez today.

Meanwhile in the singles match yesterday, Novak Djokovic advanced to the semi-finals with a 100 % record as the world number one defeated Czech fifth-seed Tomas Berdych 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) .

In another doubles match, India’s Rohan Bopanna and Mahesh Bhupathi qualified for the semi-finals after they prevailed over Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor.

The fifth seeds beat Mirnyi and Nestor 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 10-5.

In the singles event, Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro was delighted with his 6-0, 6-4 win over Serbian eighth-seed Janko Tipsarevic.

The sixth seed still needs a win against Roger Federer in his final group match today to reach the last four.

“It’s not easy to win a set 6-0,” said Del Potro. “Janko was fighting. I have to step up against Federer. I’m back in the top 10 and I want to enjoy this week.” (With additional information from AFP)

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2012.