The Indo-Pak Express of Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna continued their winless run in the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, going down to Poland’s Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-2, 6-1.
The Polish duo ended their Group B round robin campaign with a 2-1 record after they beat the fifth seeds in just 49 minutes Thursday. The Polish pair were dominant in the first set, winning it in just 28 minutes and dropping only five points on serve. Aisam and Bopanna had absolutely no answers to the serve-volley game of the Polish pair, as they were routed in the second set with the Poles not even dropping a single point on serve.
The US Open finalists, Fyrstenberg and Matkowski, will have to wait for the result between second seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic and third seeds Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor to know if they have qualified for the semifinal.
Federer beats Fish to
extend winning run: Defending champion Roger Federer maintained his 100 percent record at this year’s ATP World Tour Finals by completing his group fixtures with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory over America’s Mardy Fish on Thursday.
Federer was already guaranteed top spot in Group B and a place in the semi-finals after winning his first two matches and the Swiss survived a mid-match wobble against Fish to extend his impressive run at London’s O2 Arena.
Federer’s 37th career Tour Finals victory moved him into second place on the all-time list ahead of Boris Becker and he is only two wins behind leader Ivan Lendl. His semi-final opponent is still to be decided, but if Federer can maintain this impressive form it would be no surprise to see him win the tournament for a record sixth time and equal Lendl’s tally of victories in the process.
