While Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna advanced in the 2016 US Open, Leander Paes failed to progress past the second round in the mixed doubles event
John Isner, ranked 18th, was coming off a third-round Wimbledon exit at the hands of reigning US Open champion Marin Cilic after dropping the fifth set 12-10. He was seeking a third title at Newport and the 10th ATP crown of his career.
American twins Bob and Mike Bryan earned their shot at their 100th doubles title with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory Thursday over Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram in an all-American semifinal in the first match of the day at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Bopanna and Qureshi now face giant-killers Lukas Rosol and Joao Sousa, who dumped the top seeded American pair of Mike and Bob Bryan 3-6 6-3 14-12 in their quarter-final.
Playing together for the first time after rejoining forces, third seeded Indo-Pak pair recorded a hard-fought 7-6(5) 6-7(2) 10-3 win over the unseeded Dutch-Romanian team in one hour and 41 minutes.
The Indo-Pak pair, who took the world by storm by reaching the US Open final in 2010, will be coming together for the new season, commencing with ATP Tour in Chennai.
Somdev, along with other top players like Rohan Bopanna, is currently training at the Sania Mirza Tennis Academy on the outskirts of the city.
Sania Mirza and Romanian Horia Tecau had joined forces this season for the Wimbledon championship, where they made quarter-finals and also played together at the US Open, making the third round.
The fifth seed Indo-French pair suffered a 6-7 (5) 6-3 4-10 against Croat-Brazil combo in one hour and 17 minutes.
Bopanna and his French partner defeated American pair of John Isner and Nicholas Monroe 7-6(2) 7-5 after one hour and 13 minutes.
While Rohan Bopanna and his French partner Roger-Vasselin Edouard have been seeded fifth, Leander Paes and his Canadian partner Daniel Nestor are seeded seventh.
Aisam believes that both he and Bopanna have matured as players since ending their pairing two years ago.
The duo split in 2011 after Bopanna decided to partner Mahesh Bhupathi in preparation for the 2012 London Olympics.
The fourth seeded Indo-French pair emerged winners with a 7-6 (5) 6-4 scoreline against the Briton-Australian combo of
Bopanna and his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin, seeded fourth, beat the Austrian-Briton combination 6-4 7-6(6) in the semifinals of the USD 1,297,000 hard court event.
Paes and Stepanek had to battle for two hours and 12 minutes to overcome 14th seeded veteran French pair of Michael Llodra and Nicolas Mahut 7-5 4-6 6-3.
Rohan Bopanna and his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who are seeded sixth, got the better of Russians Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Elgin. Fourth seeds Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek also endured a tough match before rallying to beat the unseeded German-Austrian duo of Daniel Brands and Philipp Oswald 4-6 6-3 6-4.
The doubles veteran, who had announced that 2013 would be his final year on tour, seems to have had a change of heart.
