Rohan Bopanna/ Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi cruise into the second round of Doubles – Gerry Weber Open 2011
Top seeds, Pakistani Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Indian Rohan Bopanna, downed the Croat Ukrainian pair of Ivan Dodig and Alexandr Dolgopolov in straight sets at Gerry Weber Open 2011, a grass court tournament held in Halle, Germany.
They registered a 7-5, 6-4 victory over the unseeded team to advance into the second round on Tuesday.
The Indo Pak Express drilled their way into the second round after breaking their rivals’ serves three times to earn the victory in one hour and fourteen minutes.
After the lower ranked pair held their serve in the first game, Qureshi and Bopanna unleashed their true colours to reel off next three games in a row. Despite losing their serve in the tenth game to square the scores at 5-5, they broke Dodig and Dolgopolov’s serve again in the proceeding game and took the lead again. The high spirited pair then held their serve in the last game to seal the deal by winning seven games to five.
They produced a similar first serve share of 56 percent and earned an acceptable 55 percent win on it. In addition to this, the Indo Pak team saved five out of six breakpoints conceded and converted two out of seven breakpoint opportunities to their advantage.
Qureshi and Bopanna kept momentum rolling into the final set and got the coveted break in the very first game. They then kept their entire serves through their amazing co-ordination and eventually clinched the set with a 6-4 win.
The in-form pair saved five breakpoints faced and converted one out of eight breakpoint opportunities to their advantage to help win comfortably. They produced a similar first serve share again but earned a spectacular 88 percent win on it.
The Indian Pakistani duo is in tremendous form this season. They made semi-final berths at Sydney and Monte Carlo and reached quarter-finals at French Open, second of the four Grand Slam event, where they lost to top seeded Bryan Brothers before entering this ATP event.
The winning combination of Qureshi and Bopanna will next face German French tandem of Dustin Brown and Gael Monfils who destroyed Spaniards, Pablo Andujar and David Marrero with a bagel to reach this spot.
The Indo Pak Express will be joining second seeds, American Eric Butorac and Curacao Jean-Julien Rojer, in the second round. The latter battled past Germans, Michael Kohlmann and Philipp Petzschner in a three set thriller on Monday. Butorac and Rojer won the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve once and then dominated in the super tie-breaker to clinch the match 6-3, 3-6, 13-11 in sixty-six minutes.
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