Qureshi/Rojer upset Bryans to advance to the quarter-final – Mutua Madrid Open 2012
Pakistani-Dutch duo of Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer made the biggest surprise of the tournament so far, as they defeated Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 4-6, 6-4, 18-16, in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open in Spain
on Thursday.
Qureshi and Rojer gave their best performance since pairing up together, saving five match points to stun the best doubles team in the history of tennis.
Known as the prince of Pakistan, Qureshi did not have any major success at the start of this season, as he was forced to play with a new partner after his former companion, Rohan Bopanna of India, decided to split with him.
The Pakistani star reached his best ranking of number eight last year but dropped to 14 after continuously failing to perform at the highest level with Rojer.
However, Qureshi did not ditch his much lower ranked opponent and decided to give their combination some more time to settle down. The decision paid off last week, as they downed Julian Knowle and David Marrero in the Estoril Open
final to lift their first team title.
In Thursday’s match, Qureshi/Rojer and Bryans started steadily, holding their serve in the first nine games of the opening set to take the score to 5-4 in the latter’s favour. The twins drew the first blood, as they struck at that
moment to capture it 6-4.
The start of second was quite similar to the first, as both teams failed to break each other in the first six games and evened out the score at 3-3. Qureshi and Rojer hit a blow to the Americans in the seventh and capitalised on
the advantage to win 6-4.
The Pakistani-Dutch tandem and Bryans went neck to neck till 7-7 in the super tie-breaker but then the former grabbed two consecutive points to create two match points. Though, the American pair saved both of them to level the
score at 9-9. The rest of the proceedings saw both combinations taking the contest back and forth. Qureshi and Rojer saved five match points in the process and converted the fifth one of their own to clinch it 18-16.
Ranked 17th in this season, the Pakistani-Dutch duo will lock horns with seventh seeds, Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna of India, in the quarter-final.
Since splitting up, Qureshi and Bopanna will be facing each other for the first time. Their Indo-Pak Express became world famous when they reached the 2010 US Open final.
Although, Qureshi and Bopanna lost to the Bryans in that title match but the Pakistani became first player from his country who feature in a Grand Slam final.
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