India-Pakistan pair of Bopanna-Qureshi shock American brothers to enter Legg Mason Tennis semi-final
India-Pakistan pair of Bopanna-Qureshi shock American brothers to enter Legg Mason Tennis semi-final
Washington: India's Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisam Ul-Haq-Qureshi shocked second-seeded Americans Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 7-6(6), 7-5 to enter the semi-finals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic here.
The Bryans' defeat on Friday was their first here since 2003. The two had won three successive titles in 2005-2007 and had won a record-breaking 62nd team title in Los Angeles last week, where they had beaten Bopanna and Qureshi in the semi-finals.
"This victory is really satisfying on many levels. After the Bryan brothers beat us last week, this win shows that we were able to analyse what went wrong with our game and correct those faults to come back and win convincingly against these very tough players," Bopanna said after the win.
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| Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (left) and India's Rohan Bopanna congratulate each other after defeating Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan of the USA 7-6 (8), 7-5 during their quarter-final match of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington on Friday. PIC/AFP |
"Both Aisam and I know that our game has been improving steadily and we have the confidence and ability to be amongst the best. Our plan was to play aggressively from the start, and that's what we successfully did," theu00a0 Indian player added.
The unseeded pair of Bopanna and Qureshi fired 17 aces to seal the match in 80 minutes. They converted one of the five break points to seal victory in the 12th game, as Mike finished with two double faults.
Bopanna and Qureshi will next play American Mardy Fish and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas. Fish and Knowles defeated Sweden's Simon Aspelin and Australian Paul Hanley 6-4, 7-5.
