Chennai Open: Aisam-Bopanna looking beyond defeat

Top seeds crash out in quarter-finals of the year’s first tournament

KARACHI: Pakistan tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi and India’s Rohan Bopanna want to practice more before the Australian Open this month after their quarter-final defeat at the 2014 Chennai Open men’s doubles event Thursday.

The top seeds lost to Karen Khachanov and Saketh Myneni 7-5, 2-6, 12-10 in their first tournament of the year after defeating Benoit Paire and Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4, 4-6, 11-9 in the opening round.

Aisam acknowledged that the quarter-final was not the best performance by the pair and said the two needed more practice in order to win tournaments.

“It was very disappointing, we weren’t playing our best tennis,” Aisam told The Express Tribune. “This was the first time I lost a match after going four points up. However, Bopanna and I will keep pressing on since we believe that improvement comes with perseverance.”

The 2010 US Open doubles finalists had reunited after parting ways two years back.

“Now that we are together again, people expect us to win every tournament which is not that easy. Bopanna is also working hard to improve as a player; we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses so we’ll gel back together soon. We will also have an addition to our team when coach Scott Davidoff from the US joins us in Australia.”

Meanwhile, Bopanna said it was just a matter of time for him and Aisam to start winning tournaments.

“It’s a great feeling to play with a friend again; we’ve known each other for 16 years now,” said Bopanna. “We complement each other well.

“We’ll have a coach in Melbourne who’ll give us an outside perspective and we’ll pick things up from where we left. We’ll be pushing each other to improve.”