India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi yesterday advanced to the final of men’s doubles competition of the Stockholm Open tennis tournament after a hard-fought victory over Marcos Baghdatis and Juan Martin Del Potro.

The top-seeded Indo-Pak pair beat the duo of Baghdatis of Cyprus and Del Potro of Argentina 2-6 6-2 10-8 in a thrilling semi-final match of the 600,000 Euro tournament, which lasted one hour and eight minutes.

The ‘Indo-Pak Express’ had earlier beaten German pair of Michael Kohlmann and Alexander Wask 7-6(5) 7-5 in the quarter-finals.

In the final, the duo will take on the winner of the semifinal match between Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina and Brazilian Andre SA and Brazilian pair of Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares.

Bopanna and Aisam were rusty in the opening set as they struggled with their serves with four double faults to none of their opponents. Baghdatis and Potro were also much better on service returns as they bagged the first set in quick time.

The Indo-Pak pair fought back in the second set with a much improved service game, which put pressure on their opponents in committing unforced errors, and took the match to the decider.

The deciding set saw both the sides sparing no inch to their opponents but Bopanna and Aisam came up with better serves and held their nerves at crucial moments to come out winners.

Bopanna and Qureshi, who had won the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany earlier this year, are currently No 7 for the Battle for London — the ATP World Tour Finals next month — with just three qualifying spots left for grab.

source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore> Sports / PTI / Friday, October 21st, 2011