Rohan Bopanna-Aisam Qureshi enter final of Sydney International
The Indo-Pak pair, seeded third, beat Lukas Rosol and Joao Sousa 6-1, 6-2 in 44 minutes. Bopanna and Qureshi will now face Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in the final.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: January 10, 2014 06:15 pm IST
India's Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi maintained their winning run in the men's doubles competitions of the Sydney International tennis tournament to reach the final with a comprehensive win over Lukas Rosol and Joao Sousa at the Ken Rosewall Arena here.
The Indo-Pak pair, seeded third, beat Rosol and Sousa 6-1, 6-2 in 44 minutes. Bopanna and Qureshi will now face Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in Saturday's final. Bopanna and Qureshi won 69 per cent of first serve points and over 50 per cent of points when the opponent got their first ball in.
Sousa's frustration at being unable to get on the second set scoreboard was evident when at 3-0 down he smacked a ball that went sailing out of Ken Rosewall Arena. That didn't stop Bopanna and Qureshi continuing to press their opponents, dictating play at the net with short sharp volleys.
Meanwhile, Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic defeated Julien Benneateau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 4-6 7-6(5) 10-5 in the other semifinal. The Canadian-Serbian pairing lost the first set after Benneateau and Roger-Vasselin demonstrated their French flair, hitting crisp volleys and returning well, and the second set was another tight affair with the teams swapping breaks early before heading into a tie-break.
Despite the French pair grabbing the early lead, when Zimonjic hit a forehand volley into the open court, the veterans were able to force the match into a third set match tiebreak.
In a closely fought affair, Nestor and Zimonjic demonstrated their class and experience coming out on top in the tiebreaker 10 points to five.