New Delhi: Top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi lived up to their billing and won their first ATP title of the season, overcoming Robin Haase and Milos Raonic 7-6 (8) 3-6 11-9 in the summit clash of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany on Sunday.
It took the Indo-Pak pair one hour and 19 minutes to beat the Dutch-Canadian combination.
The win would do a world of good to the confidence of the Indo-Pak pair in the run up to the Wimbledon Championships.
It is Bopanna's third career ATP World Tour doubles title, having triumphed in Johannesburg with Qureshi last year and with American Eric Butorac in 2008 in Los Angeles.
Apart from winning at Johannesburg, Bopanna had reached final six times. Except for Atlanta event, Qureshi was his partner in all those tournaments, including the US Open.
Overall, they were playing their ninth ATP World Tour doubles final together.
In Sunday’s final, interestingly the Indo-Pak pair could not convert any of the four breakpoints, three in the opening set, and also dropped their serve in the second set but held their nerves in the Super Tie break to clinch the issue.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, June 12, 2011, 21:41