MELBOURNE: Pakistan’s tennis star Aisam-ul-Haq and Marcin Matkowski of Poland safely progressed to the second round of the men’s doubles event at the Australian Open here on Thursday.

The 15th-seeded pair defeated Marcelo Demoliner of Brazil and Philippines’ Treat Conrad Huey in straight sets in their first-round match. The opening set was decided in a tiebreaker which Aisam and Matkowski won 7-6 (8-6) before clinching the issue by winning second set at 6-4.

Aisam and Matkowski next play the unseeded duo of Sweden’s Robert Lindstedt and Croatia’s Franko Skugor on Saturday. Lindstedt and Skugor had ousted the Czech Republic pair of Roman Jebavy and Jiri Vesely 7-5, 7-5 in their first-round meeting on Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2018