London: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi crashed out of the ATP World Tour Finals after suffering their third consecutive defeat in the event, going down to the Polish duo of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in their Group B match on Thursday.
The fifth seed "Indo-Pak Express" was outplayed by its eighth seed opponents 2-6, 1-6.
Bopanna and Qureshi, who finished their matches in Group B with a 0-3 record, looked rusty throughout the match as they committed four double faults as compared to just one by Fyrstenberg and Matkowski.
Dominating from the word go, Fyrstenberg and Matkowski never spared an inch to the Indo-Pak duo, besides converting five of the eight break points they got, to comfortably win the match.
The Polish pair, who ended their Group B round-robin campaign with a 2-1 record, will now have to wait to learn if they have qualified for the semi-finals for a third time -- their progress depends on the result of the match between second seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic and third seeds Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor.
Fyrstenberg and Matkowski dropped just five points on serve in the 25-minute first set, converting two of two break point chances in the third and sixth games, while Bopanna and Qureshi failed to convert all three of their break points.
Their dominance continued in the second set as well as they sailed to a 4-0 lead without dropping a point on serve and never let their higher-seeded opponents settle at the net, regularly hitting powerful and angled returns.
Bopanna and Qureshi complete the 2011 season with a 38-26 mark, highlighted by lifting three doubles ATP Tour titles at Paris Masters, Stockholm Open and Gerry Weber Open.
Yesterday, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi revived their ATP World Tour finals campaign with a straight-set win over Jurgen Melzer and Philip Petzschner to keep their semifinal chances alive in the elite season-ending event.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, November 24, 2011, 21:15