There is good news and bad news for Pakistan tennis. Aisam Qureshi is through to the second round of the men’s doubles. The bad news is that there will be no Pakistani at the Olympics event later in July-August. Aisam and partner Jean-Julian Rojer cruised past the English pairing of Josh Goodall and James Ward in the first round of the doubles event.
It was a tight contest in the first set, with Ward and Goodall taking it into the tie-break where they had an initial mini break. But Aisam and Roger picked up the pace and after the first tie break, Goodall was broken in the first game of the second set. The writing was then pretty much on the wall with the English pair wilting under the pressure imposed on them by the eighth seeds.
For Aisam and partner from now on the challenge will get will have tougher. It would be premature to comment on the pair’s chances in the tournament as the challenge that they faced was not stiff enough to form any judgment. The first set was not totally convincing and the opponents had lost the will o fight in the final two games. The duo will now be looking to build on this performance and should take a lot of confidence from their first outing. That neither player dropped their serve is a positive that should bid well for the future matches.
PTF’s failure: The PTF had been making some noises in the local press about requesting a wild card for Aqeel Khan and Aisam for the Olympics. But Aqeel has no ATP points and he and Aisam have not played together on the tour even though they have combined well for the Davis Cup. Had the two even played some Challengers together, it is quite possible that Aqeel could have earned some points and qualified for the Oympics. He is a big talent and it is only because of the lack of resources that he has been unable to make a bigger mark internationally.
Most of the favourites advanced in the initial rounds at Wimbledon, with Roger Federer particularly impressive in his straight set win over one time practice partner, Italian Fognini. Rain has delayed many of the matches and Novak Djokovic has just taken the court against the rising American Ryan Harrison. Harrison had beaten the Taiwanese Asian number one Lu in the first round. Harrison looks strong in the initial stages, matching the world number one shot for shot. But Djokovic has the gift of finding his opponent’s weakness and dismantling his game.
The Indian soap opera: The Indian team of Bhupathi and Bopanna also went through comfortably, in the shadow of the Olympic Games doubles controversy which threatens to cast a pall on India’s chances at the Games. India’s top ranked player Leander Paes has refused to play with a lower ranked player while Bhupathi and Bopanna have refused to play with Paes, saying that they are a team and intend to play together. Stay tuned as the drama unfolds.
