Qureshi to Face Canada’s Shamasdin at French Open

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

Pakistani men’s doubles tennis star Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and his Dutch partner Jean Julien Rojer had a cakewalk in their first round match at the French Open. They overwhelmed the French duo of Jonathan Dasnieres De Viegy and Nicolas Renavand 6-3, 6-2 in a match that lasted barely an hour.

Qureshi, whose doubles ranking recently dropped from 14 to 16 in the world, is hoping to reach the Roland Garros final in order to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics in July. Qureshi and Rojer will now face Bjorn Phau of Germany and Adil Shamasdin of Canada in the second round.

Shamasdin’s parents emigrated from Kenya to Canada. Shamasdin, for his part, saw his junior career finish ranked #5 in singles and #1 in doubles in Canada. He subsequently came to the U.S. for college, and he achieved All-American status at Brown University in the Ivy League.

He reached his highest professional doubles ranking of number 67 in the world in February of 2011. Shamasdin has won four ATP Challenger Tour titles and seven ITF Futures titles in his senior men’s career. He just turned 30 years of age last week. He currently resides in Toronto.

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