Aisam ousted in Barcelona

BARCELONA: Aisamul Haq Qureshi and his Slovakian partner Filip Polasek were sent packing out of the Barcelona Open on Friday with a straight-sets loss in the second round doubles match.

Second seeds Bryan brothers, Bob and Mike, demolished Qureshi and Polasek 6-4 6-4 after the duo had won a close match in the first round. Tsonga denied first clay title by Bakker World number ten Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was defeated by Thiemo de Bakker 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the singles quarter-finals. Finishing Tsonga took two hours for De Bakker, who denied the Frenchman his first clay title of his career. Tsonga was unable to continue his reversal of momentum after coming back to win the second set.

The third seed lost a third-set break, but got it back for 2-3 only to drop serve again against De Bakker. The Frenchman saved a match point in the penultimate game but to no avail as he lost the final game to lose the match. Soderling through to quarter-finals French Open runner-up Robin Soderling ruined Eduardo Schwank’s 24th-birthday celebrations when he thrashed the unseeded Argentine 6-2 6-3 in another quarter-final. The Swedish world number eight has not dropped a set all week on the Catalan clay and will play unseeded Thiemo de Bakker for a place in Sunday’s final.

Fernando Verdasco won an all Spanish semi-final against David Ferrer 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 6-1. Verdasco ended his fellow Spaniard’s momentum with two breaks in the second set to even the match. Verdasco then dominated Ferrer in the deciding frame with forehand winners and came out on top in a one-sided final set.