Indo Pak Express returns, sails through first match at Shanghai
Doubles duo, Pakistan’s top player Aisam ul Haq Qureshi and India’s tennis pro Rohan Bopanna returned to the court for the ATP Shanghai Rolex Masters event to play their first match since the 2010 US Open tournament. The two players were up against Mark
Knowles, from the Bahamas, and German professional tennis player Philipp Kohlschreiber. The two players from neighboring countries, often known as the Indo Pak Express due to their partnership and the legendary speed and resiliency which they are known for,
made short work of their opposition to progress to the next round of the ATP doubles event, winning the match in straight sets 7-6 (9-7), 6-2.
This match is their first return to the court after the sublime performace exhibited by Rohan Bopanna and Aisam ul Haq Qureshi in the 2010 US Open event doubles, where they had their first major success as a team. At the men’s doubles, their partnership
was seeded sixteenth; nonetheless, the two managed to upset the second seeds, Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic, advancing to the quarter finals of the event.
This was their second straight quarter final at a major event, with the first appearance made at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships. They reached the semi finals after upsetting Wesley Moodie and d**k Norman, 10th seeds, in this round. At the semi
final itself, the duo outlasted Eduardo Schwank and Horacio Zeballos, Jr. to play against the World Number 1 doubles team, first seeds Americans Bob and Mike Bryan. They lost the match in close straight sets, 7-6, 7-6, with the Bryan brothers citing it as
one of their most difficult matches.
At this particular match, the two players started off slightly slowly, playing their first match as a doubles partnership after four weeks. Bopanna’s serve was slightly slow, leading the other team to break them in the very first service game; however, they
soon recovered their own ground by breaking Mark Knowles’s service to level the score to 4 all. Although they were a break point down at this point, they managed to save themselves to push the score to 5-4. Both teams fought their way to 6-6; here, the Indo
Pak Express had a minor break advantage, which they soon lost.
An ace on Aisam’s part helped the progression to the 7-6 tie break; Knowles saved their next point to progress to 7 all, but then hit a double fault to make the score 8-7 in the favour of Bopanna and Qureshi. The two bagged the first set with a graceful
serve from Bopanna, complemented by a finishing volley by Qureshi.
This first victory at the set left both players charged and encouraged, and they breezed through the second set with minimal effort. They broke their opponents twice, once on the second serve to take a 2-1 lead and then again at 2-4, converting the score
to a 5-2 advantage. After this stage, the duo had no trouble stealing the set; Aisam served out the match, to make a 6-2 score.
The final tally was 7-6 (9-7), 6-2, meted out by the Indo Pak Express in one hour and 27 minutes. They fired six aces, compared to two by Knowles and Kohlschreiber, winning 68 points to their opponents’ 63.
In the next round, they will face seventh seed duo Wesley Moodie and d**k Norman, whom they defeated in straight sets at the quarter finals of the US Open.
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