24-Jan-2012
THE NEWS
THE NEWS CORRESPONDENT
KARACHI: Pakistan’s tennis ace Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi on Monday created history in Melbourne when he became the first player from his country to enter the quarterfinals of the Australian Open tennis tournament.
Aisam teamed up with Andrea Hlavackova of Czech Republic at the Margaret Court Arena to conquer the formidable team of former world number one Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and rising Australian star Bernard Tomic in straight sets in the mixed doubles pre-quarterfinals of the year’s first grand slam event.
The 6-3, 6-3 triumph makes Aisam the first Pakistani player to have entered the last-eight stage in Australian Open history. Aisam, who along with his former Indian partner Rohan Bopanna, created history in 2010 by reaching the final of the men’s doubles event at the US Open, was in full flow during the match against Serbia’s Jankovic and Tomic. He served and vollied well and received great support from Hlavackova as the seventh seeded duo just sailed in the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Monday, however, was a day of mixed fortunes for Aisam as his challenge in the men’s doubles event fizzled following a third-round defeat.
Together with Jean-Julien Rojer – his new partner – Aisam was up against the team of Eric Butorac (USA) & Bruno Soares (Brazil) on show court 3. The Butorac-Soares team won the opening set 6-4 and then brushed aside their opponents 6-2 in the second one to cruise into the next stage of the tournament.
The Australian Open was Aisam’s first major international assignment with Rojer following his split with Bopanna late last year. Bopanna opted to team up with his compatriot Mahesh Bhupati with an eye on this summer’s Olympic Games in London.
Aisam and Bopanna enjoyed a series of impressive performances on the international circuit during the time they played as a team. Popularly known as the Indo-Pak Express, the duo compiled a consistent season, reaching the semifinals or better at seven tournaments in all, including the US Open, where they ended runners-up in 2010.
The Aisam-Bopanna duo managed to reach the quarterfinals of the French Open where they lost to the Bryan brothers before going the whole hog and winning the Gerry Weber Open. Their biggest achievement of the year though came when they lifted their first Masters title in Paris to become the seventh doubles team to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals. |
