Pakistan’s Aisamul Haq Qureshi and his partner India’s Rohan Bopanna stormed into the doubles final of the ATP Challenger Hester Cup in Manchester after defeating Australian pair of Andrew Coelho and Adam Feeney in the semi-finals. The score-line was 6-4, 7-5. They will clash with Dutch-Swedish pair of Huta Galung and Ryderstedt in the ultimate showdown, a spokesman for Aisam told Daily Times on Sunday.

Andrew and Adam had earlier caused a major upset by defeating top seed pair of Lars Burgsmuller and Harel Levy.

In the quarter-final, Aisam and partner had a close call before prevailing upon the German pair of Simon Stadler and Dominik Meffert. They won the first set with a 6-3 score but Bopanna’s serve was broken at 5-6 giving the Germans a 7-5 set. In the super tie-break, played after one set all, Aisam and Bopanna struck back aggressively to take it 10-7.

Their first round match against British pair of Richard Bloomfield and Ken Skupski was also highly enjoyed by the crowd, as it was contested rather fiercely with Aisam and partner eventually emerging winners with a score of 3-6, 7-6(3), 10-6. Due to rains on Friday, the singles matches could not continue on the outdoor grass courts of the Northern Club Manchester. Therefore, the organisers decided to defer the singles matches to the next day, but moved the doubles to the indoor courts. They would like to hold the singles on outdoor courts to have their spectators stands filled up.

SOURCE : DAILY TIMES

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