Today Indian Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani doubles partner Aisam-Ul-Haq Quresh try and make history! The Men’s Double Finals will be carried on CBS this afternoon. They will face the American Bryan brothers (twins), who they beat last month. Any of you fortunate enough to be able to watch it can leave your observations in the comments thread here (note: all jingoistic and non-secular comments will be deleted).
NPR featured the dynamic duo this morning.
And the two ambassadors are bhai-bhai.
“There’s always the potential,” the Pakistani ambassador, Abdullah H. Haroon, said. “Hardeep [Indian Ambassador] and I are in the New York area and we’re always looking for avenues to open and this is a magnificent one. The message going back to Pakistan is, here’s a team seeded 16th, and they’re in the finals for the first time at the U.S. Open. That’s great news.” [link]
Let’s hope for a good match.
This sporting event is cool! I wouldn’t read any geopolitics into it, however. India and Pakistan are still on different sides of a civilizational divide. See Mansfield, Clash of Civilizations. No amount of personal friendship, however nice it may be, can overcome this civilizational divide.
I think you need to recheck your definition of “civilization”.
Northern Indians have way more in common culturally with Pakistan than they do Southern Indians: food, languages, Kashmir, etc.
Anyway, both these bhais are HOT!
last comment in response to Paul. apparently changed up after preview.
Umm .. I think you shouldn’t make such sweeping statements. Indian Punjab/ Rajasthan have some things in common with their contiguous Pakistani provinces Pak. Punjab/Sindh ethnically and culturally . Baluchistan/NWFP are similar to Afghanistan. Interestingly the two aforementioned states have minimum percentage of Muslims in India ( because of Partition) .
Just tuned in. Looks like they dropped the first set in a tiebreaker. 5-5 in the second set but the brothers have a break chance at 30-40.
2nd set tiebreaker.
Over. The bros win in straight sets 7-6, 7-6.
Dang thing got over so quickly. Inconsistent sub-continentals with flashes of brilliance got pwned by the aggressive and efficient, consistent but boring goras. Usual… 🙂
Good luck to Qureshi and Boppana for future tournaments.
Their runners-up speeches were beautiful. What a classy pair, and extremely gifted players. We’ll see them in more finals, no doubt.
I missed it. What’d they say?
Don’t knock the B brothers though…they’ve won the most double matches of all time. No shame losing to them.
Qureshi spoke about how he wanted people watching to know that Pakistanis are warm, loving, friendly people, and wished a happy Eid to the spectators, then thanked the Bryan brothers for a donation they’d made to one of the Pakistani flood funds. He got a huge round of cheers and applause for all three comments.
(Last comment was a reply to Vivek, “reply” button seems to not work.)
This is encourging!
paul – not just culturally, even genetically – i would wager that the overwhelming majority of punjabis [muslims, hindus and sikhs] and sindhi [hindus and muslims] have common ancestry.
Also, Michiganders culturally have more in common with Canadians than Alabamans. Is there a point to this hair-splitting?
For the record, Rohan Bopanna is a South Indian
@ Paul & Zaniab
True. However, religion/nationality appears to trump any sense of ethnic solidarity, at least that is the way things appear to be panning out.
Just curious people. Did Aisam observe Ramazan throughout US open?
I was linking my question to the photo,
Paul and Zainab, “Civilization” isn’t about genetics. It’s about habits of mind, what’s thought to be right and wrong, what goals are worth pursuing, individually and collectively. On these things, India and Pakistan are indeed different civilizations. This is why Professor Huntington (sorry, I erroneously said Mansfield in comment 1) places them squarely in different civilizations, even though he only uses 9 major civilizations in the world. The mindset is just so different, even if the foods are what is grown locally and hence similar.
not “try and make”.. “try to make”
Some things just can’t be rushed. You have to take your time, letting everything simmer, and increasing the heat and pressure slowly. Anyone who’s hunted another human being knows this.
I watched the US Open doubles final and I am impressed with with Aisam-Ul-Haq Quresh and Rohan Bopanna. Aisam-Ul-Haq Quresh is very attractive I defintiely think he should consider a modeling career! Bopanna has a lot of power his serve is just huge. Quresh is more talented he has great hands and volleys very well. I was disappointed they lost to the Bryan Brothers they had a real chance to win the match. But I am happy they competed so well. Also, the pay day for reaching a grand slam doubles final will be huge so this was a good experience for them.
There is only an Indian civilization. The “separateness” is what was encouraged by the British to partition the country and retain local presence after Indian independence. No need to encourage this point of view.
Keep in mind that being part of the same civilization does not exclude terrible disagreements and wars. In the 2nd World War, the Germans and Americans were part of the same civilization and more than 30% of the American population was of ethnic German extraction.
@Sandip “I wouldn’t read any geopolitics into it, however.” I agree.
“The “separateness” is what was encouraged by the British to partition the country and retain local presence after Indian independence.”
Ah…of course, where would fairy tales be without boogeymen.
Wasn’t this about tennis?
Hasn’t this Us vs The “white devils” mentality ruined cricket already? Let’s just stick to treating sports more like Joe Morgan and less like Kim Jong Il
============ Reg: They’ve bled us white, the bastards. They’ve taken everything we had, not just from us, from our fathers and from our fathers’ fathers. Stan: And from our fathers’ fathers’ fathers. Reg: Yes. Stan: And from our fathers’ fathers’ fathers’ fathers. Reg: All right, Stan. Don’t labour the point. And what have they ever given us in return? Xerxes: The aqueduct. Reg: Oh yeah, yeah they gave us that. Yeah. That’s true. Masked Activist: And the sanitation! Stan: Oh yes… sanitation, Reg, you remember what the city used to be like. Reg: All right, I’ll grant you that the aqueduct and the sanitation are two things that the Romans have done… Matthias: And the roads… Reg: Well yes obviously the roads… the roads go without saying. But apart from the aqueduct, the sanitation and the roads… Another Masked Activist: Irrigation… Other Masked Voices: Medicine… Education… Health… Reg: Yes… all right, fair enough… Activist Near Front: And the wine… Omnes: Oh yes! True! Francis: Yeah. That’s something we’d really miss if the Romans left, Reg. Masked Activist at Back: Public baths! Stan: And it’s safe to walk in the streets at night now. Francis: Yes, they certainly know how to keep order… (general nodding)… let’s face it, they’re the only ones who could in a place like this. Reg: All right… all right… but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order… what have the Romans done for us? Xerxes: Brought peace! Reg: What!? Oh… shut up!
I love Life of Brian as much as the next person, but I hope the irony of quoting a British comedy to make your point about how we pay too much attention to British colonialism is not totally lost on you 🙂
BTW “In the 2nd World War, the Germans and Americans were part of the same civilization and more than 30% of the American population was of ethnic German extraction.”
That statement is not only one of complete relevance to actual sociological definitions but it is factually incorrect as well. The number of people with German Ancestry has never exceeded 20% in the US. The big influx before WW II had a sizeable percentage of Jews as well, so that is an even more invalid observation.
“complete relevance” is supposed to read “complete irrelevance”
you guys should maybe consider, an EDIT option that expires within a time limit. So that dunces like me are allowed to pz-ost prz-operly
That’s right – this is meant to be about sports. Shame they lost, would have been a nice booster for them and the respective countries. Still, they did well to get so far and they did perform respectably, I guess. Plus, they have beaten the Bryan brothers before.
I will say that I always find it interesting when people defend British colonialism by saying “well, they did give us all this great stuff”. Yes, but at what cost? The subjugation of a people, the systematic destruction of its pride, the theft and looting of its natural resources, the impoverishment of its people. Not to mention the famines and countless Indians who died as a direct or indirect cause of British policies.
Colonialism can never be justified, never. Especially, violent, superiority complex-driven colonialism. I would ask you this – why didn’t they just help us build all that “great stuff” together, in harmony and with mutual respect? We could have paid them with our natural resources or increased trade.
Meanwhile, in the real world of west bongal, jihad has started in deganga. don’t know what i’m talking about.. keep on reading abcd blog.
That’s amazing that they went so far in the tournament. Can someone who knows about tennis assess whether they’re actually good or is this more of a one-off? I haven’t been paying much attention and looking at their ranking and previous performance and whatnot it seems like a one-off, but I don’t follow tennis closely.
I wonder what will happen if Sania Mirza and Quresh play mixed doubles wearing those T-shirts. Will the pakistani mullahs issue a fatwa against Mirza?? That’s one possibility, or the other one being, Sania having inspired women in pakistan to take up tennis.
um. i have no valid contribution to make here. except: when american jews and blacks came together, that made the Civil Rights movements. just sayin. back to lurk mode as an uninformed civilian…
Rohan won the singles match against Brazil, advancing India.