Jan. 5: The Indo-Pak Express made a memorable Chennai Open debut on Wednesday as Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi rolled over Marcos Daniel and Eduardo Schwank 6-3, 7-6(3) in the doubles first round here at the SDAT Stadium. Playing on Indian soil for the first time, the ATP humanitarian award winners complimented each other’s game and dominated the match from the word go. A clinical break in the fourth game saw Rohan-Aisam running away with the first set in just under 30 minutes.
While Bopanna was spot on with his booming serves, Aisam showed great anticipation at the net. The Indian fired in nine aces. The second set, that saw no service breaks, went to the tie-breaker where Bopanna-Aisam, the 2010 US Open finalists, raced to a 3-0 lead before wrapping up the match.
The 2008 Chennai champions Ratiwatana twins (Sanchai and Sonchat) also progressed to the second round. The Thai duo overcame a sluggish start to beat Britons Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins 7-6(7), 6-1. Earlier, Tomas Berdych stormed into quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Ivan Dodig of Croatia. Though the world No.6 didn’t produce his best tennis that got the better of Roger Federer twice last year, Berdych emerged the winner.
Berdych won only seven of 20 matches after his stupendous Wimbledon show last year, but in his first match of the season on Tuesday he looked to be in devastating form. The towering Czech was a little shaky against Dodig.
"The scoreline makes it look easy but it was tough. I made a few mistakes, but what matters is the outcome," said top-seeded Berdych, who is however confident of going all the way here. Berdych struggled with his serve. He double faulted in the fourth game of the opening set to drop his serve for the first time in the tournament. There were a number of unforced errors from his forehand, known for its reliability.
The Czech will next play Slovakian Blaz Kavcic, who ousted American Robert Kendrick 6-2, 6-2.