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Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna entered the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo ATP Masters with a straight-sets win over Eric Butorac and Roger Julien on Thursday.
Playing their first-ever clay court Masters tournament, the IndoPak Express showed little signs of nerves as they won the 90-minute match with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 score.
Qureshi and Bopanna started the first set impressively, but their opponents kept up the pressure throughout the set despite conceding eight breakpoint opportunities. While the South Asian pair failed to convert the breakpoints, they took the match into a tie-breaker.
Once into the tie-break the sixth seeded IndoPak Express set up a mini-break at 3-4 and were soon serving for the set at 5-3, an opportunity duly converted by Qureshi and his Indian partner.
Butorac and Julien were the Semi Finalists of Australian Open Grand Slam Tennis Championship and have been in great form ever since with many great wins under their belt this season.
In the previous round here in Monte Carlo too they secured a good win against Spanish pair Albert Montanes and Garcia Lopez.
The second set was a less competent affair as Qureshi-Bopanna broke their opponents’ serve at after the third game to take a 3-1 lead. Butorac and Julien, semi-finalists at this year’s Australian Open, were unable to break back and conceded the set at 6-3.
The match saw six aces being hit by Qureshi and Bopanna, one less than their opponents’ and the IndoPak Express saved all four of their breakpoints while Butorac and Julien saved all but one of their 12 breakpoints, which led to their defeat in the second set.
The South Aisan duo have a quarter-final clash against Daniel Nestor and Max Mirnyi.
