Qureshi/Rojer plonk Blake/Querrey to enter quarters – Western and Southern Open 2012
Eighth seeds, Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Netherlands’ Jean-Julien Rojer, eased past the local wild card entrants, James Blake and Sam Querrey, in straight sets at the Western and Southern Open 2012 on Thursday. They penned down a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory
against the Americans to cruise into the final eight at this ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Masters 1000 event taking place in Mason, Ohio.
The Pakistani-Dutch junction warded off late resilience posed by Blake and Querrey to progress into the quarter-finals. They required one hour and 20 minutes stealing the spotlight at this outdoor hard court tournament taking place from 11th to
19th August. Qureshi and Rojer are bidding for their third year-to-date title together.
Qureshi and Rojer thundered into the Lindner Family Tennis Center. They drew the first blood in the opening game to climb to a 2-0 lead. After cashing in another break chance in the fifth game, the in-form tandem went 5-1 up. The Pakistani-Dutch pair plucked
their serve once more and bagged the opener by winning six games to two.
Ranked seventh in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Doubles Rankings, Qureshi and Rojer carried their rhythm in the following set. They got the critical break in the third game and leaped to a 3-1 lead. Apart from losing their edge in the eighth game,
the Pakistani-Dutch duo remained calm and took the set to a tie-breaker. They edged past the Americans in it before carving out the victory with a 7-6(4) score line.
Summing up the seeds’ performance, Qureshi and Rojer struck six aces and amazingly brushed off five out of six breakpoints they came across. They clobbered a lower first serve share of 52 per cent as opposed to their rivals’ 64 per cent but tremendously
marked 26 out of 33 points on it.
Next challenge for the Pakistani-Dutch collaboration is the second seeded American duo, Bob and Mike Bryan. The three times Cincinnati champions, Bob and Mike devastated their opponents, Jarkko Nieminen and Stanislas Wawrinka, with a bagel to set up this
meeting. They cashed in five out of eight break opportunities to formulate a 6-0, 6-1 success in half hour.
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