A day after stunning the formidable Bryan Brothers, Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and his partner Jean-Julien Rojer went down fighting against India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Boppanna in the men’s doubles quarterfinal of the Madrid Masters on Friday.
Just hours after their impressive 4-6, 6-4, 18-16 victory against USA’s Bob and Mike Byran, the Aisam-Rojer duo lost 6-7, 6-7 to higher seeded Bopanna (ranked 12) and Bhupathi (15) in the last-eight stage of the tournament.
Aisam, ranked 14 in the men’s doubles rankings, is likely to climb up the rankings ladder which is great news for Pakistan as they are hoping of an Olympic tennis spot for the first time in history. If Aisam finishes in the top-10 ahead of next month’s cut-off date then he and Aqeel will make the cut for London 2012. Aisam and Rojer were brimming with confidence after knocking out the third-seeded Brians, regarded among the best doubles team in the world. But they failed to repeat the golden show against the Indians. Bopanna is Aisam’s former partner and together they reached the US Open final. By reaching the last-eight Aisam has earned 180 points. These points will help Aisam to move to world number 13 in the rankings to be updated on Monday. Aisam is currently ranked number 14 with 4025 points, and these 180 points will give him a boost he needed in his bid to book a berth at London Olympics. His partner Julien too will get a jump of three ranking spots to be placed on number 32 with 2220 points.
