Qureshi Reaches Australian Third Round Before Exit

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

Rohan Bopanna of India and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (cap) of Pakistan play a shot during their doubles match against Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne January 24, 2011. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz

The men’s tennis doubles team known as the Indo-Pak Express was finally derailed in Melbourne, Australia. The team, consisting of Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and India’s Rohan Bopanna, lost this week in the third round of the Australian Open men’s doubles event 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3) to the team of Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia. The only consolation to losing the hard-fought match was that they lost to a higher-seeded team, with Llodra and Zimonjic seeded eighth in the men’s doubles division and Qureshi and Bopanna seeded tenth. And in fact, Zimonjic himself is ranked number three in the world as a doubles player. Bopanna and Qureshi are ranked number 16 and number 18 respectively as individual doubles players and are ranked tenth in the world as a team. Ironically if the so-called Indo-Pak Express had prevailed, they would have played the all-Indian team of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes in the quarterfinals.

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