Preview U.S. Open final: Bopanna-Qureshi vs. Bryan Brothers
The best part of the U.S. Open doubles is that Rohan Bopanna of India and Aisam-ul-Haq have made their way to the finals, now they could be found in the stands, not the shoreline.
The doubles team reached the U.S. Open final on Wednesday, winning the match that brought United Nations ambassadors from all over the world to Flushing Meadows to watch the action together.
The idea of Pakistan and India on the same side of anything has long been considered wise and fruitful. These two Asian countries have been through three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947 and spent most of the time between in a state of suspicion and heightened military tension.
More tellingly, the Indian Ambassador, while giving an interview to the Associated Press said that both the players have shown great level of potential, and this is the time for both of them to prove their abilities and capabilities.
Their next match is against top-seeded Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan, the toughest doubles team in the history, who have won most of the titles.
Bopanna and Qureshi call themselves as “Indo-Pak Express”; they came together more for convenience than for message-sending. Tennis is not very famous in Pakistan, so to find a partner Qureshi had to look to his neighbouring country.
They made a team in 2003, played on and off since then. Their story got fame when both the players started wearing sweatshirts with the slogans reading “Stop War, Start Tennis” as part of a campaign backed by a Monaco-based group called Peace and Sport.
The idea of running this campaign was to play a match with a court set-up across the Indian-Pakistan border. As dreamy as it may sound, the players even never thought that the ambassadors from the two countries were hanging out together in New York taking in a tennis match.
"There's always the potential," the Pakistani ambassador, Abdullah H. Haroon said. "Hardeep and I are in the New York area, and we're always looking for avenues to open and this is a magnificent one. The message going back to Pakistan is, here's a team seeded 16th, and they're in the finals for the first time at the U.S. Open. That's great news."
The 16-seeded Bopanna-Qureshi doubles team defeated Eduardo Schwank and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina by 7-6 (5), 6-4. They are only one win away from the championship now. It’s their best game in a Grand Slam event after a quarterfinal appearance at Wimbledon earlier this year. They won last month against Bryan-Bryan, so now we could say that anything is possible, a point being driven home on many levels by their tennis partnership.
"Obviously, it feels like us doing well is getting the message across throughout the world and among all the Pakistanis and Indians," Qureshi said. "I've always said if I and Rohan can get along so well on and off the court, there's no reason the Indians and Pakistanis can't get along with each other."
Qureshi is also playing in the mixed doubles final, along with the partner Kveta Peschke, which has given him two chances to bring some very good interesting news back to his home country, the nation hammered by disasters like floods, terrorist attacks and a cricket scandal in the past few days.
Other than a title spreading sunshine back home, Qureshi hopes to use his abilities in New York to speak about his country and its religion Islam.
"We do have terrorist groups, we do have extremists, but I feel like every religion there are extremists there," he said. "It doesn't mean the whole nation is terrorist or extremist. Pakistan is a peace-loving country. Everybody loves sports. I think everybody wants peace, as well."
Hopefully this team will perform its level best in the final against the Bryan Brothers, and will live up to the expectations of its respective countries and fans.
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