Victorious reunion for Bopanna and Qureshi

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  • Rohan Bopanna and Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi, otherwise known as the IndoPak Express, have commemorated their reunion with a title victory, clinching the doubles crown in Dubai with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor.

    The Indian-Pakistani pair reformed a full-time partnership at the start of this season and managed to win their fifth title together as a team, and their first since the Paris Masters in late 2011, by triumphing in Dubai.

    It was Bopanna’s second victory in Dubai, having picked up the title with Mahesh Bhupathi two years ago.

    “Happy to be back to the winning ways and winning a title. We got back this year hoping to continue the streak,” said Bopanna after the win. “We started off well in Sydney. We lost to Zimonjic and Nestor there in the final and happy to win this title against them and get a little sweet revenge back.”

    Both pairs were neck-and-neck during the first set until Bopanna and Qureshi broke in the 10th game on Zimonjic’s serve to edge ahead.

    Qureshi was pressured early on, on his serve, but Zimonjic dropped his own serve again in the fourth game to give the opponents a 3-1 lead and it was all they required to take the second set and the match in 68 minutes.

    The success in Dubai was the 10th title win each for Bopanna and Qureshi, who plan on playing the rest of the season together.

    “We took our chances,” Qureshi said of their final yesterday. “We took it to them, basically. We played very good finals against them in Sydney, as well. I thought we were the better team, but they ended up playing really well in the tiebreakers.

    “I think today on the big points, especially the no-ad points, Rohan returned remarkably well. He took, if I remember, 80 per cent of the no-ad points we won today. That’s a huge key, because all four of us play very aggressively and it’s about taking chances. We served really well and very smartly.”

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