Bopanna/Qureshi overcome Almagro/Andujar to reach the quarter-finals – Valencia Open 2011
The Indo-Pak Express of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi continued its magnificent roll in the current season, outplaying the unseeded Spaniard duo of Nicolas Almagro and Pablo Andujar in the opening round of the Valencia
Open on Monday afternoon.
The fourth seeded duo of Bopanna and Qureshi took merely 67 minutes of play to wrap up victory in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5, to make a berth in the quarter-final round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 500
event.
The contest was played on the indoor hard courts of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències in Valencia, Spain, and ended to the dismay of the local crowd, as the Spaniards crashed out of the first round of draw. Almagro and Andujar
failed to pose any serious challenge to the belligerence of the seventh ranked duo in the contest. They were completely outplayed by the pin-point hitting of Bopanna and Qureshi throughout the game and let them an easy pass to the round of eight in the tournament.
The Indo-Pak Express has already bagged two doubles championship titles in the running season and their forceful start in Valencia hints that the fourth seeded duo is well on its way to extend its title count in this event. Bopanna
and Qureshi are still alive in the race for the last three vacant spots in the circuit finale, the ATP World Tour Finals in London, this month.
The fourth seeded contestants delivered merely 54 per cent of their serve on target but dropped just three points on the first serve, clinching 26 out of 29, to come out as the winner. Bopanna and Qureshi converted four of their
seven break opportunities in the matchup, while Almagro and Andujar stung two out of four serve breaks to finish on the losing side in the end.
The Spaniard were off to an ordinary start in the first set, with their fourth seeded opponents reeling off all the 13 first serve points to get the early advantage in the game. One break of serve proved enough for Bopanna and
Qureshi to close out the opener at 6-3, giving them 1-0 lead in the contest. Almagro and Andujar stung two break points in the following set but the Indo-Pak duo outplayed them with three crushing breaks of serve to wind up victory at 7-5.
Bopanna and Qureshi will either on the pair of Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares from Brazil or the local wildcard duo of Roberto Bautista-Agut and Albert Ramos in the quarter-final round of the Valencia Open.
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