PARIS: The sixth-seeded duo of Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna of India overcame a stiff challenge from Divij Sharan and Rameez Junaid in their men’s doubles first round match at the French Open on Wednesday.

The ‘Indo-Pak Express’ scraped past India’s Sharan and Australian Junaid who is of Pakistani origin 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 7-5 in a match lasting a little over two hours.

The seasoned pair next take on either the team of Jonathan Erlich and Marcelo Melo or the pairing of Frantisek Cermak and Mikhail Elgin.

The experience of playing close matches bailed Bopanna and Aisam out of trouble. Under pressure after losing the second set tie-break, the duo stepped up its game in the decider, converting all three break points and serving well consistently.

Overall, Aisam and Bopanna won five out of their 10 break points while Sharan and Junaid made use of three of the five opportunities they got. They hit 10 winners to their opponents’ two.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2014