LAHORE – Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi and his partner Rohan Bopanna forced their way past the the Indian combination of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi to qualify for the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. In a tightly contested match between the current runners up of the Australian Open and the US Open, it was the Indo-Pak duo who came out on top 6-3, 6-4.
Momentum swung from one side to the other in the nerve wracking encounter, where the first set saw a three breaks of serve. Aisam and Rohan broke early, only for their opponents to break back immediately. Having converted the two break point chances they had created, Aisam and Rohan found themselves with a chance to serve out the first set at 5-3, 40-15.
However, a string of five back to back fault serves gave Paes and Bhupathi a chance to break back once more. Calming their nerves, Aisam and Rohan made it 4 break points saved out of 5 for the first set, to take it 6-3. Paes and Bhupathi have years of experience over the Indo-Pak Express, and this told in the way they fought back in the second set, carving out three break points in the very first service game.
However, Aisam and Bopanna remained calm in the face of this onslaught, and took their points one at a time to take the game. Mirroring the events of the first set, Aisam and Bopanna forged an opportunity to break in the very next game, racing to 0-40 on Paes’s serve. While the crafty Indians pulled back one point, they could not save the game as Aisam and Bopanna secured a lead they would not relinquish.
The pair went on to stave off 7 more break points in this set to cling on to their precious lead, and end the match 6-3, 6-4. Up next is the pair of Novak Djokovic and Victor Troicki.
