Indo-Pak pair bites the dust

Chennai: Second seeded Indo-Pak combine of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Huq Qureshi bite the dust losing their doubles quarterfinal match 4-6 5-7 against unseeded American-Dutch duo of David Martin and Robinn Haase in the Aircel Chennai Open ATP Tennis tournament here on Thursday.

Playing against a vociferous supportive crowd, Bopanna and Qureshi tried their best to make a match of their rivals, superior play in a evenly fought out match but Haase-Martin held the edge throughout the 70-minute tie. Spectators were looking for a showdown between Bopanna-Qureshi final against the top seeded Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi but their disappointment loomed large as the Indo-Pak duo were silenced but their rivals today. It was question of grabbing the chances and David in particular excelled whenever needed to with Haase, who had earlier played a long singles match to success after dropping the first set to Yuichi Sugita of Japan (4-6 6-3 6-4). The win kept alive hopes of winning one more match against American duo of Simon Bolelli and Janko Tipserevic in the next tie before making the final slated for Sunday.Bopanna-Qureshi favourites to win today’s match were shaky in their starts and their rivals wrested the advantage with a seventh game (vital in doubles matches) breaking Bopanna’s service game. They were able to keep up their success percentage intact as Martin-Haase went on to break Qureshi twice (third and eleventh games), though they broke back Martin’s seve in the sixth game of second set. Thus, Bopanna-Qureshi could save just two of five break points against them, though they sent out seven aces to four by the Americans. PTI