New York: There was no stopping the 'Indo-Pak Express' as Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi inched closer to their maiden Grand Slam title together by advancing to the US Open finals here.
Continuing with their message of 'Stop War, Start
Tennis', 16th seeds Bopanna and Qureshi beat Argentines
Eduardo Schwank and Horacio Zeballos 7-6 (5), 6-4 to set up a
summit clash with top-seeded American brothers Bob and Mike
Bryan in the finals.
"I mean, to win a Grand Slam you have to beat the best
there is. That's what Aisam and me keep telling (each other),"
Bopanna said after the win last night.
The Indo-Pak duo was cheered on from the stands by, among
others, the United Nations ambassadors from their respective
countries. India's ambassador Harpreet Suri and his Pakistan
counterpart Abdullah H Haroon even met the two players after
the match.
Though there summit clash seems tough on paper against
the Americans but Bopanna and Qureshi can draw confidence from
the fact that they beat the Bryans just a few weeks ago in an
ATP tournament in Washington.
"They are the best out there now. For us, we just have to
go there, play our games. You know, we just beat them few
weeks ago in Washington, so, you know, we are really looking
forward to that Friday match, and we go in confident, playing
and doing well there," Bopanna said.
Qureshi said his pairing with Bopanna has worked
perfectly so far because he shares a warm relationship with
the Indian off-court as well.
"I always believed if we played consistently on ATP, me
and Rohan both as a team, we can do really well on the tour
and we can make our mark," he said.
> "And in the last past two or three months we have had I
think wins against all the top 10 teams in the world. It just
shows that I was pretty right about our pairing together, and
you know, it would be just a matter of time. I always believe
we can do really well in the Grand Slam on the ATP circuit.
"Making quarterfinals at Wimbledon was a huge learning
experience. I definitely learned a lot from it, and that whole
experience is definitely paying off in this US Open these last
two weeks," he added.
PTI
First Published: Friday, September 10, 2010, 08:57