Pakistan tennis star Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and his Indian partner Rohan Bopanna crashed out of the men’s doubles semi-final at the US Open Tennis Championships with a 2-6, 6-7(4) loss to the Polish pair of Marcin Matkowski and Maruisz Fyrstenberg. The Pakistani and Indian pair, seeded fifth and finalists of the US Open last year, went down in an 82-minute battle on Friday to the sixth-seeded Polish pair who had defeated India’s doubles pair Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi in the quarterfinals.
With the loss, the Pakistani and Indian challenge in the US Open is over. According to reports, it was the first Grand Slam final appearance for Matkowski and Fyrstenberg where they will be playing former Wimbledon champions Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Philipp Petzschner of Germany. Aisam-Bopanna were rusty in the first set which was completely dominated by Matkowski and Fyrstenberg, who converted two of the three break points.
The pair put up a tough fight in the second set but failed to keep up the momentum in the tie-breaker to lose the set and the match. Aisam and Bopanna earlier Friday had to close out their rain-interrupted quarter-final against Britons Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins. Aisam was serving for the match at 6-5, 0/15 in the final set on Thursday when rain stopped play. He, however, soon closed out the match 7-5, 2-6, 7-5.
Bopanna will now be heading to Tokyo on Sunday where India will be playing their Davis Cup World Group play-off against Japan Sep 18-20. “Well, our journey at the US Open has come to a halt by the Polish train in the semi-finals,” Bopanna wrote on his twitter account.
