Bopanna-Qureshi lose second match of season-ending finale

London: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi lost their second match of the ATP World Tour Finals after suffering a defeat at the hands of Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia in their Group A match.

Fifth seed "Indo-Pak Express" lost in straight sets, 6-7(6) 3-6 to second seed French-Serbian combo. Bopanna and Qureshi, who are now left with just one match in their group, committed as many as seven double faults in the match as compared to just one by their opponents. Both the pairs managed to win one of the two break points they got in the first set to take it to tie-breaker. But the strong combination of Llodra and Zimonjic cashed in on the mistake of their rivals to nose ahead. In the second set, the French-Serbian managed to hold on to the chances they got as they converted two of the five break points to snatch the set and the match away. Bopanna and Qureshi, who also lost their round-robin opener to Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor on Sunday, have dropped to a 38-25 season record, highlighted by three titles. They have played great tennis this year, winning three doubles ATP Tour titles at Paris Masters, Stockholm Open and Gerry Weber Open. They also reached the semifinals of the 2011 US Open before falling to Polish stars Marius Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in straight sets. Yesterday, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi suffered a 6-7(6) 1-6 defeat at the hands of Sweden`s Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau of Romania in their first round Group A match. The top two teams from the two group will make it to the semifinals. PTI