The 'Indo-Pak Express' pair of Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Rohan Bopanna of India had to face tough resistance from Russia's Mikhail Youzhny (currently world no. 9) and Sergiy Stakhovsky, the no. 1 player of Ukraine (currently world no. 37) in the opening round of St. Petersburg ATP World Rating Tennis Championship being played on the indoor courts of Sports Complex Petersburgsky, Russia. The tight battle, however, saw Bopanna and Qureshi come out on top 6-2, 2-6, 10-3.
In the opening set of their match in front of a large local crowd on centre court, Bopanna and Qureshi played superb tennis. They served well and returned equally well. They conceded only four points in the entire first set on their own service games and hit sizzling winners on their opponents serves and broke their service game twice to take the first set with a 6-2 score.
Things were moving quite well in the second set too when suddenly at 2-2, 40-0, Bopanna hit two double faults followed by a missed volley saw the home favourites break. This suddenly changed momentum of the game as the Russians fought back and won the second set with a matching score of 6-2.
Here the match entered the Super Tie Break stage.
Normally the team winning the second set has a game momentum in their favour in the tie breaker but Bopanna and Qureshi bounced back brilliantly. Holding points on their own serves the pair reached a 9-3 lead before Bopanna made no mistake in taking his team across the line with a great serve.
Bopanna and Qureshi hit two aces and two double faults while Youzhny and partner hit three aces and one double fault.
The winners grabbed 52 of the 100 points played while losers got 48.
Bopanna and Qureshi will now face either the Serbian pair of Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki or Fabio Fognini (Italy) and Maximo Gonzalez (Argentina) in the quarters subject to the outcome of their matches.
