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Aisam-Aqeel take Pakistan close to win Back To Main

KARACHI: Pakistan’s tennis ace Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi on Sunday celebrated his 50th win for Pakistan in Davis Cup competitions after he put the national team 2-1 ahead along with long-time partner Aqeel Khan against Lebanon in their Asia-Oceania zone group-II opening round match in Beirut.

Aisam, by far Pakistan’s most successful Davis Cup player of all time, played the lead role in their marathon four-set triumph over Lebanon in the doubles match of the ongoing Davis Cup tie.

The Aisam-Aqeel duo won 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) in four hours and five minutes to place Pakistan within striking distance of winning their opening Davis Cup match of 2012. With Aisam in great form, Pakistan will begin the final day of the Davis Cup clash on Monday (today) as firm favourites to win the tie as they just have to prevail in one the two reverse singles matches to proceed to the next round of the tournament. Aqeel will play in the other reverse singles matches.

On Saturday — the opening day of the tie — Aisam gave Pakistan a winning start when he thrashed Karim Alyali of Lebanon 6-0, 6-3, 6-4. But the home team bounced back when Bessam Bedas defeated Aqeel 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 to level the scores. On Sunday, Aisam and Aqeel used their vast experience to tame the duo of Patrick Chukri and Bessam Bedas in the tough doubles contest.

The Pakistanis were off to a bright start when they wrapped up the opening set 6-2 without much fuss. But the Lebanese team was unwilling to surrender tamely and came back strongly in the next set which it won 6-3. However, Aisam and Aqeel displayed great coordination in the third set to win it 6-4 before prevailing in a tense fourth set which they won a tie-breaker.

The ongoing tie was supposed to be played in Lahore but was shifted to Beirut by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) after Lebanon raised security concerns. Pakistan filed an appeal against the decision but it was rejected by the ITF.