“Indo-Pak Express” doing well at U.S Open

Hey tennis fans, have you been paying attention to the nice run by Indian Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani doubles partner Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi at the U.S. Open in New York [thanks for the tip, Abe]? Can I get a “South Asia, represent” from the crowd?

Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi looked around the perimeter of the court Tuesday and saw what he’d hoped for. They were sitting together.

Pakistanis and Indians, blurred along the bleachers, one just like the other. They were clapping for the same thing. Cheering in unison…

“There was a lot of Pakistanis and Indians in the crowd cheering for us,” Qureshi said. “And you couldn’t tell the difference, who was Pakistani and who was Indian, they were all mixed together and supporting the same team.” [Link]

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p>And they won their match yesterday to advance:

Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi progressed to the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals of US Open with a straight-set win over German-Finn pair of Michael Kohlmann and Jarkko Nieminen.

The 16th seed Indo-Pak pair defeated their opponents 6-4 6-4 in the second round of the season’s last Grand Slam. [Link]

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p>Were any of you there at the Open? Anyone see the match? Would love to see some pictures of the crowd.

The duo next play second seeds Daniel Nestor of Canada and Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic in the third round.

54 thoughts on ““Indo-Pak Express” doing well at U.S Open

  1. “In the finals now- since they play the Bryan brothers, we’ll get to see the full match for sure”

    Yeah, Bryan bros have quite a loyal following, even bigger than the Tcythian sisters.

  2. In the matches I saw from the stands, Rohan held serve more easily. He can hit the 120-130mph range consistently and his second serve is 95-105mph. Rohan has solid strokes, might be a bit slow around the court. Qureshi is quicker but not as heavy a hitter. They’ll need to serve well, and Qureshi needs to volley exceptionally to beat the Bryans.