The Hindu : Sport : Bopanna-Qureshi duo triumphs again

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Monday, Aug 06, 2007
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Sport

Bopanna-Qureshi duo triumphs again

Special Correspondent

— FILE Photo: Mohammed Yousuf

RISING CONFIDENCE: After winning a hat-trick of doubles titles , Rohan Bopanna feels he has it in him to crack the top-50 in the rankings.

NEW DELHI: Rohan Bopanna capped a fabulous run in the European circuit as he won the doubles title with Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan, beating Michel Kratochvil of Switzerland and Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-6(9), 6-3 in the final of the $125,000 Challenger tennis tournament at Segovia, Spain, on Saturday. The effort fetched 90 ATP points and 6,600 Euros for the duo.

It was a hat-trick of doubles titles for the third-seeded Indo-Pak combination following the titles at Manchester and Nottingham over the earlier fortnight. Bopanna and Aisam had first won a Challenger doubles title together as far back as in 2003 at Denver, U.S., but could not continue together on a regular basis as they were playing different tournaments most of the time.

Incidentally, it was the fourth doubles title in five Challenger finals in the last five weeks for the 27-year-old Indian Davis Cupper who is all set to break into the top-100 and possibly figure in the early 90s when the ATP releases the rankings on Monday. He has six Challenger doubles titles overall from 11 finals so far.

‘Feels great’

“It feels great. It couldn’t have been any better. Well, maybe it could have been five out of five, but I am not complaining. After making the finals of the Tour events with Prakash Amritraj in Chennai and Mustafa Ghouse in Mumbai last year, this spell has really motivated me to work harder to break into the top-50. It has been great playing with Qureshi and we are looking forward to playing more regularly in the Tour events. I’m also going to request the AITA to try and get us a wild card for the Australian Open, if we can’t improve our ranking by then to get an entry as a pair there,” said Bopanna as he talked to The Hindu from London on Sunday.

“I’m taking a week’s rest. I will be playing the Bronx Challenger next at New York, before the U.S. Open qualifying event. I will be playing the doubles with Qureshi at Bronx, but can’t get into the U.S. Open with him. I am actually looking to partner a top singles player for the Open, as all the doubles players are already committed. I have also sounded Mahesh Bhupathi as he is playing in the Masters event and can check out with the players directly,” said Bopanna.

Before the stupendous run, Bopanna had made one semifinals over the earlier six weeks.

Unprecedented success

The unprecedented success has not disturbed the priorities for Bopanna and he would be keen to break into the top-200 in singles soon from a career best 213, as much as stay on course for the top-50 in doubles.

“With my ranking I can regularly get into the qualifying rounds of the Tour events in singles. Actually, I got into the Montreal qualifiers but pulled out. It was fine this week for me in a big Challenger, though it was the easiest in the last three weeks.

To break into the big league in doubles I need to play the Tour events regularly”, said Bopanna, quite confident of joining the elite, at least in doubles, and pushing his case harder in singles.

After Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won five Challenger titles before breaking through to great success with half a dozen Tour titles in 1997, Bopanna will be the first Indian to break into the top-100 of ATP doubles.

He has the big game, confidence and the maturity to continue with his glorious streak.

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