Fyrstenberg/Matkowski halt the Indo-Pak Express in RR – Barclays ATP World Tour Finals 2011
Poor slump for the Indo-Pak Express continued on Thursday night as well, with fifth seeded pair of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi falling to the eighth seeded Polish duo of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in their
last Round Robin clash of the Barclays ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Finals.
Bopanna and Qureshi suffered a humiliating straight sets defeat, 6-2, 6-1, at the hands of the Pole competitors to finish 0-3 in the Group B. The Indo-Pak Express utterly failed to win any of its Round Robin matches and finally
got sidelined from the race to the semi-finals of the circuit finale at the glorious O2 Arena in London.
Fyrstenberg and Matkowski are 2-1 in the Group B standings and were finally awarded the semi-final berth in the tournament after the second ranked duo of Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic lost their encounter to Max Mirnyi and
Daniel Nestor later in the evening. Fyrstenberg and Matkowski appeared absolutely unplayable in the Thursday night’s contest, outclassing Bopanna and Qureshi in every segment of the game to race away to victory in a comprehensive fashion.
Fifth seed Bopanna and Qureshi were very disappointed with their run at the ATP World Tour Finals and appeared dejected after their dismissal from the tournament.
“When they serve well, at 130 miles per hour plus, it is always tricky, but we played our worst match of the season,” said Bopanna. "I was definitely flat.”
“It has been an unbelievable experience, I can't sum it up in words,” said Qureshi. “All year long we have tried to be here. It has been our target and to finish in the Top 10 is fantastic. It was our worst match of the year, but
it is a learning process.”
The Polish duo dropped just two points on their first serve in the entire contest, clinching 18 out of 20 points to come out as the winner. They converted five out of eight break points in the matchup, whereas Bopanna and Qureshi
badly failed to register a single serve break in the contest, frittering away three vital opportunities to finish on the losing side in the end.
Fyrstenberg and Matkowski have reached the semi-finals of the year-ending event on two prior occasions as well (in 2008 and 2010) and possess 21-27 winning record here. They will certainly desire to carry on their winning form
in the upcoming semi-final clash on Saturday night as well.
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