KARACHI: Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi is all set to defend his Halle Open title in Germany, after he and doubles partner Jean-Julien Rojer sailed through to the final of the tournament on Saturday.
Qureshi and Rojer, who have enjoyed some success in recent tournaments, overcame Poland’s Lukasz Kubot and Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny 6-2, 6-4 in the semi-final that lasted just over an hour.
Thirty-one-year-old Qureshi favours the green surface and has achieved some of his best results on the grass. Of late, however, he has advanced to the latter stages of hard and clay court grand slams as well.
The Pak-Dutch duo had a great run at the French Open, where they reached the semi-finals, only to be ousted by doubles maestros Bob and Mike Bryan.
Qureshi and Rojer have played 13 tournaments together so far and enjoy a top-ten rank (nine) in the ATP doubles team rankings.
They will face Philippnes’ Treat Conard Huey and America’s Scott Lipsky tomorrow as Qureshi bids to defend his ATP title with Rojer.
Qureshi, who won the men’s doubles final with his then partner Rohan Bopanna at the ATP event last June, was playing his first grass-court event before he heads to London for Wimbledon.
