Bopanna-Aisam go down fighting in ATP Challenger final

New Delhi, Nov 30 (UNI) Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi failed to bag their fifth ATP Challenger title this year after losing to South African pair of Wesley Moodie and Rik de Voest in the final here today.

The second seeded Indo-Pakistani duo finally found a match on the top seeded pair to lose 4-6, 6-7(4) in the title round.

There was very little to differentiate between the two pairs but the service break at the end of first set gave the South Africans the advantage.

In the second set tie breaker, the more experienced South African pair, who escaped with a 6-7(4), 6-4, 16-14 win over Russian duo of Pavel Chekhov and Michail Elgin in the semi-final yesterday, kept their cool to deny Bopanna and Aisam a victory in their sixth final in five months.

For Aisam, though, the doubles loss was compensated by his semi-final victory in the singles over Adrain Cruciat of Romania.

Seeded sixth in the tournament, Aisam, who shocked top seed Ivo Minar of Czech Republic in the quarter-finals yesterday, scored an easy 6-1, 6-4 win over the eighth seeded Romanian opponent today.

In the title round tomorrow, Aisam sets up date with unseeded Jae Sung An of Korea who accounted for Martin Slanar of Austria 6-4, 7-6(4) in the other semi-final today.

UNI