CHENNAI – The Indo-Pak express comprising Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi progressed to the doubles quarterfinals of the Chennai Open with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) win over Brazil’s Marcos Daniel and Argentine Eduardo Schwank here on Wednesday.
It was a hard earned win for the ‘Indo-Pak Express’ as the Brazilian-Argentine pair gave them a good fight. Bopanna and Qureshi broke their rivals once and crucially saved three breakpoints in the opening set to take lead in 28 minutes.
Daniel and Schwank came back well from the first set deficit and did their best to stretch the second one to a tie-breaker but the experienced Indo-Pak combine kept their cool to win points at crucial moments and came out winners. They converted their second of the four match poinst when Daniel failed to put across a Qureshi serve.
“This was my first match and I was little rusty. You are happy when you win a match at the start of the season and Inshan Allah I hope that I am able to better my performance in the second match,” Qureshi said after the match.
Berdych in quarter-finals: Top seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic cruised into the quarter-finals of the 450,000-dollar ATP Chennai Open with an easy win over Ivan Dodig on Wednesday.
The world number six trounced the 88th-ranked Croat 6-2, 6-4 in 87 minutes on the centre court of the Nungambakkam Tennis Stadium in the southern Indian city. Berdych, a first-timer in Chennai, beaten Frederico Gil of Portugal 6-0, 6-1 in just 45 minutes in Tuesday’s opening round.
The Czech ace showed no signs of fatigue after taking the court for the second successive day as he broke Dodig twice in the first set and then again in the fifth game of the second set.
“The scores may look like as if the match was easy, but I can tell you no match is ever easy,” the 25-year-old said. “One has to play well to make it look easy. “It is more important that I give my best each time I go on court and take every chance that comes my way. “I have had a good start in the tournament, but I am not looking at the semi-final or final yet. My next match is what counts.” Berdych will play either Robert Kendrick of the United States or Blaz Kavcic of Slovakia for a place in the semi-finals.
