Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi / Rohan Bopanna proceed to the quarterfinals – French Open 2011
The Indo-Pak express Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi reached the last-eight stage for the first time at Roland Garros as they defeated the Kazakh/Uzbek pair of Andrey Golubev and Denis Istomin in straight sets 6-3, 7-5 in
the third round of French Open in Paris on Monday. The match lasted for just an hour and nine minutes.
The first five games went with serve, taking the score to 3-2 in favour of the Indo-Pak Express in the first set. Bopanna and Qureshi broke their opponents in the sixth game, taking a 4-2 lead. The Indo-Pak duo served out the set
at 5-3.
Bopanna and Qureshi were brilliant with the serve as they hit four aces and 71 percent of the first serves in the opening set, winning a whopping 88 percent of the points on them. On the other hand, Golubev and Istomin managed
to deliver 68 percent of the first serves and converted the same percentage of them into points. Bopanna and Qureshi returned quite well as they grabbed 39 percent of the receiving points in the first set. The Indo-Pak team capitalised on one of the four break
point opportunities they received on their opponent’s serve and did not face any break point on their own serve in the first set. The Indo-Pak duo won a total of 31 points in the opening set compared to just 21 points by their opponents.
In the second set, both teams put on a serving display as they convincingly held their serve in the first ten games to equalise the score at 5-5. Bopanna and Qureshi managed to break Golubev and Istomin in the eleventh game and
consolidated on it to win the set 7-5.
The Indo-Pak team kept serving very well as they delivered four aces and 64 percent of the first serves, bagging an incredible 91 percent of the points on them in the second set. In comparison, Golubev and Istomin looked weary
while serving as they did not hit any ace and managed to keep their first serve percentage at a meagre 44 percent, winning 64 percent of the points on the first serve. Bopanna and Qureshi troubled their opponents with fine service returns, capturing 34 percent
of the receiving points in the second set. The Indo-Pak Express clinched 39 of the total 68 points in the second set.
Aisam and Bopanna improved to a 4-2 win/loss record at the French Open. They lost to Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra of France in straight sets 5-7, 3-6 in the second round last year.
The Indo-Pak Express is drawn to face world number 1 Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan of USA in the quarterfinals. It will be a repeat of the 2010 US Open final, when Bryans won in straight sets 7-6(5), 7-6(4).
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