KARACHI After becoming the first Pakistani to be seeded at the US Open, Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi ,and his Indian partner Rohan Bopanna entered the second round of the grand slam on Tuesday.
Seeded 16th at the last grand slam of the year, the Pakistani and Indian pair scored a straight-sets win (6-3, 7-6) over Brian Battistone and Ryler Deheart of the United States.
Both sides sailed through the first four service games but Qureshi and Bopanna did face a test at 2-2, when they had to save a break point before securing the game. In the next game, however, they put their opponents under pressure and managed to break serve and take a 4-2 lead. The set was essentially decided at this point, as the South Asian duo held their next two games to win 6-3.
The second set was a much livelier affair as the Americans, already forced into a corner, decided to fight back and dictated the pace of the set. At 2-3, Qureshi and Bopanna succumbed to their opponents' aggression and lost their serve and the Americans held their own serve for a 5-3 lead. This was a stern test for the Indo-Pak duo, who showed great resolve to break back Deheart's serve, and restore parity at 5-5, sending the set into a tie-break
Qureshi and Bopanna secured an early mini-break in the tie-break and led all the way up to 6-4. The Americans put a few points together to serve at 7-8 to stay in the match but unwilling to take the match to three sets, the Indo-Pak pair won the tie break 9-7, and the match 6-3 7-6(7).
In the next round, Qureshi and Bopanna will play the winner of the match between Sekou Bangoura and Nathan Pasha, and German pair of Michael Kohlmann and Jarkko Nieminen.
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