Indopak Express Back on Top

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul- Haq Qureshi hug each other after they beat Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in the doubles final match of the Dubai Open.

Pakistani doubles tennis phenom, Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, and his Indian partner, Rohan Bopanna, the so-called Indo-Pak Express, won their first men’s doubles title since reuniting as partners. They scored an impressive 6-4, 6-3 win over top seeds Nenad Zjimonjic of Serbia and Daniel Nestor of Canada, in the finals of the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Championships. And just as impressive was the fact that the pair did not lose a set in the entire tournament.

This served as revenge for the Indo-Pak Express, since they lost to Zimonjic and Nestor in the finals of the Apia International in Sydney in January. However, the South Asian duo had their work cut out for them in this final, as a large Serbian and Canadian contingent were quite vocal in support of their team. “I think the key for our win was backing each other even when things were not exactly going well,” Bopanna recounted. The duo had parted ways leading up to the 2010 London Summer Olympics, only to resume their partnership within the last six months.

Ironically, in the latest Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Men’s Doubles Rankings, all four of the finalists sit consecutively from number 12 to number 15 in the World, with Bopanna at 12, followed by Zimonjic, Qureshi, and Nestor.

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