Aisam and Rohan crash out of Kremlin Cup quarterfinals
This Friday, the Kremlin Cup’s top seeds Rohan Bopanna of India and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan were defeated and forced to drop out of the Russian tournament at the quarter final stage, losing their match in two sets to the team of Viktor Troicki and
World Number 37 Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia.
The Kremlin Cup, a $1,000,000 event, is considered highly important at this time of year for players such as Bopanna and Qureshi, who have been trying to make it to the showcase event of the year, the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals held in London. The two
players have had an exceptional 2010 run, albeit without victories. They made their mark at the 2010 US Open, cruising into the men’s doubles finals against World Number 1 doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan.
However, this time round at the Kremlin Cup, Rohan and Aisam-ul-Haq seemed to lag behind Troicki and Tipsarevic considerably, giving up the match to their opponents in 68 minutes and straight sets. This performance was quite surprising for fans, especially
because the two players had only a day earlier defeated a tough team in the previous round. The Indo-Pak express, as Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi are often called, managed to grab a three-set victory over Leos Friedl from the Czech Republic, and
Romanian player Victor Hanescu, with the final score line 6-1, 3-6, 10-8. Unluckily, Troicki-Tipsarevic proved too tough for the duo to handle.
Troicki and Tipsarevic, who have now proceeded to the semi final of the Kremlin Cup, won six games in the first set, in comparison to the four games won by their opponents. They defeated Bopanna and Qureshi on the tie breaker, although the other team managed
to gain a brief 4-1 lead in the second set, before Tipsarevic and Troicki upped their game to win the match. Although Tipsarevic-Troicki’s previous best results were at the French Open quarter finals at Roland Garros in June 2008, this match was already predicted
to be a difficult one for the Indo-Pak express, since the winning team had practically glided into the quarter final with a 7-5, 7-6 score against Serb-Croat pair, Dusan Vemic and Lovro Zovko.
However, all hope for Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna is not lost. Their next tournament is the St Petersburg Open, also in Russia, therefore as they are accustomed to the format and the environment it is expected they will present a good performance
here. The World Number 6 doubles team, which has had a largely successful run this year, are still in the running for a chance to participate in the end of year ATP Championships at London. If the duo from the sub-continent wins the event, it will add to their
as yet lonely repertoire of one ATP World Tour team title, as well as improve their chances of qualifying in the ATP World Tour Finals. They have amassed a total of $ 8900 in prize money at this tournament, as well as collecting 45 ranking points for the ATP
list.
It is reckoned that their participation in the next tournament, will grade their performance for the rest of the year, as it will assess how the duo has evolved as a pair. If they make it to the finals at London, it will provide them with a cushion and possibly
elevate their rankings, making 2011 an easier year for the Pakistani-Indian team.
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