Qureshi/Rojer roll past Llodra/Zimonjic to enter the semi-finals – French Open 2012
Pakistani tennis prince, Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and his Dutch partner, Jean-Julien Rojer, moved one set step closer to capturing their first Grand Slam crown, toppling the third seeded duo of Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic in
the quarter-finals at the French Open on Tuesday.
Qureshi and Rojer were leading 6-4, 2-1 when the French-Serbian tandem decided to quit the match due to Llodra’s back injury.
The Pakistani hero is now just two matches away from achieving double glory. If Qureshi wins the title here, he will not only become the first tennis player from his country to win a Major but also the first one to qualify for
the Olympics.
To play in the doubles event of the Olympic Games, both players need to have top ranking. However, in a situation where there is only one player with high ranking then he has to be in top 10 to choose any partner from his country,
even a player with no ranking at all.
Qureshi is currently ranked 16th in the world but if he wins the French Open title, he will earn 2000 ranking points which will take him to the top 10. The cut off date for the London Olympics tennis entry is June 11,
so performance till French will only be counted.
If Aisam qualifies for the London Olympics, he will have a good chance to earn a medal for Pakistan, as most of the top players would not be playing with their regular partners. Moreover, he has a stunning record with Pakistan’s
number two player, Aqeel Khan, at the Davis Cup. Qureshi and Khan will make a very strong combination and try to win first ever tennis medal for Pakistan at the Olympics.
Coming back to his quarter-final encounter against Llodra and Zimonjic, Qureshi and Rojer struck in the very first game of the match and consolidated on it to open up 2-0 lead. They sustained their advantage till the end and closed
it 6-4.
The Pakistani-Dutch team claimed a breakthrough in the third game of the second set to go up 2-1 and was leading 30-15 in the following one, when Llodra and Zimonjic forfeited the match.
Qureshi and Rojer bombarded four aces and 75 percent of the first serves on their opponents in the match. They captured 19 of the 24 first and seven of the eight second delivery points. The right-handers banged in four winners
and did not make any unforced error in the entire contest.
The Pakistani-Dutch pair will lock horns with the best doubles team in the tennis history, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, in the semi-finals. Bryan brothers rallied past the Austrian-Argentinean combination of Oliver Marach and Horacio
Zeballos in the quarter-final.
This will be Qureshi and Rojer’s third meeting with the twins during this year’s European clay court season. The Pakistani-Dutch duo beat them in a marathon second round match at the Mutua Madrid Open but lost to the Americans
in straight sets in the semi-finals of Open de Nice Côte d'Azur.
Bryans are the same team which defeated Qureshi and his former partner, Rohan Bopanna of India, in the 2010 US Open title match.
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