Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan (L) shakes hands with his partner Rohan Bopanna of India (R) after winning a point. -AFP Photo

ISLAMABAD: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi suffered defeat at the hands of Xavier Malisse and Alexander Dolgopolov in the semi-finals to bow out of the BNP Paribas tournament.

There was not much difference between the two sides but the Ukrainian-Belgian pair managed to win 6-3-6 (8-10), website www.espnstar.com reported.

The 15th ranked Indo-Pak duo, who had a successful tournament, beating World No 2 duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi in the second round before getting the better of the Serbian pair of Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki in the quarterfinals, failed to live up to their reputation at the crucial juncture of the match on Thursday.

Starting on a positive note, the Indo-Pak pair raced away with the opening set quite comfortably, winning it 6-3.

But Malisse and Dolgopolov, who had earlier caused a major upset by beating top seeds Mike and Bob Bryan in the quarterfinals, came back hard to bag the second set.

The issue was settled in the tie breaker in which the Ukrainian-Belgian duo held their nerves to emerge triumphant.