Aisam-Bopanna glory run continues

Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and India’s Rohan Bopanna fought their way to the third round of the French Open men’s doubles after disposing off Argentine Maximo Gonzalez and Kei Nishikori of Japan in a thrilling three-setter at Roland Garros Friday.
The fifth seeded Indo-Pak pair rallied from a set down to see of Maximo and Nishikori 6-7 (4) 6-3 6-4 in a two-hour and 17 minutes second round clash.
Bopanna and Qureshi will be up against Andrey Golubev of Kazakisthan and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the next round.
However, Bopanna could not create the same magic in the mixed doubles category and became a first round casualty along with Sania Mirza.
The Indian pair lost 6-7 (4) 6-7 (2) to Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei and Marcin Matkowski of Poland in a hard-fought first-round showdown.
In the women’s doubles event, Sania combined with Russian Elena Vesnina to dismiss the challenge from German-Sweden combo of Kristina Barrois and Johanna Larsson 7-6 (4) 6-3 in a second round match that lasted for one hour and 42 minutes.
The seventh seeds will now take on 11th seeds Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and A Medina Garrigues of Spain in the second round.
Schiavone advances, Stosur falls: There were mixed fortunes for last year’s finalists at the French Open on Friday with defending champion Francesca Schiavone reaching the last 16, and Samantha Stosur crashing out after being a break up in the deciding set.
The fifth-seeded Australian was serving at 2-1 up against unseeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina when two double faults halted her momentum.
The South American, who had won the first four games of the third round tie before Stosur had seemingly turned the tide with some big hitting, took full advantage to take a 4-2 lead.
Dulko then served out twice to clinch a battling victory 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 after which she unfurled a white towel carrying congratulations to her brother and his wife who gave birth to twins on Wednesday.
Her reward will be a matchup against either 11th seed Marion Bartoli of France or 17th seed Julia Goerges of Germany with a place in the quarter-finals at stake.
“I played really well in the beginning, trying to be really aggressive and I did it very well,” Dulko said.
“Sam is a very powerful player and if I wasn’t going to be aggressive it was going to be difficult for me.
“Then I had a few ups and downs, but played very good tennis at the end of the match.”
For Stosur it was a massive blow as she had been touted as a potential winner in a tournament blown wide open by the shock defeat on Thursday of Kim Clijsters.
Schiavone also got off to a poor start against China’s Peng Shuai before hitting back to win the first set 6-3, but then trailed 2-1 in the second when her opponent retired after struggling with respiratory problems.
It was the little Italian’s 10th straight win at Roland Garros after her upset victory last year and she will next play former world number one Jelena Jankovic who saw off Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States 6-2, 6-2.
The 26-year-old Jankovic, whose only title this year came at Monterrey, said that she had not played against Schiavone for two years but always enjoyed taking on her “good friend”.
“She has her own style and is so different to everyone else,” the Serb added.
Also going through on a cold, windy day was the 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, who rediscovered some of the form that has been missing so far this year to defeat Candadian hope Rebecca Marino 6-0, 6-4 in just 49 minutes. The 13th seeded Russian, whose other Grand Slam title win came at the 2004 US Open, totally dominated a 17-minute first set against an opponent who struggled to get to grips with the conditions.
But the second set proved a tighter affair with the big-serving Marino holding firm until the ninth game when Kuznetsova clinched the break she needed to stay on course for a third Grand Slam title at the age of 25. Next up will be a tie against either top seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark or Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia.