IndoPak Express’ Erste Bank Battles—Nathan’s Blog

Written by: Staff on 27th October 2011

IndoPak Express’ Erste Bank Battles—Nathan’s Blog |

Nathan M. Cuny

At the end of the Stockholm Open, Rohan Bopanna and his teammate Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (doubles No. 7) took home the title with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares (doubles No. 10). Three days later at the Erste Bank Open, the IndoPak Express team faced the same finalists they contended with at the Stockholm Open. The first round rematch at the Erste Bank Open did not end well for Melo and Soares, as they lost for the second time in less than a week against Bopanna and Qureshi. The scores of their Erste Bank Open rematch were 6 6 4 Melo/Soares, and 2 7 10 Bopanna/Qureshi.

The IndoPak Express team face Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski (doubles No. 8 ) on the center court at 1 pm, Friday the 28^th of October. Fyrstenberg/Matkowski are the No. 4 doubles seeded players of the Erste Bank Open. The match between Bopanna/Qureshi and Fyrstenberg/Matkowski should be a fierce one, as both teams hold onto the last two spots in the Battle for London.

Fyrstenberg and Matkowski are 560 points behind the IndoPak Express team. If they beat Bopanna and Qureshi in the upcoming match, they will be one step closer to winning the Erste Bank Open title, which could mean big trouble for Bopanna and Qureshi. If the IndoPak Express team wins the Erste Bank Open they will gain a reasonable points’ distance between them and their closest opponents.

It’s important Bopanna and Qureshi do not fall past their No. 7 spot in any of the next three upcoming tournaments, the last of the season. Bopanna and Qureshi have not qualified for Barclays yet because they have one more requirement to fulfill. In order for a team/player to qualify they have to compete in eight ATP World Tour Master’s 1000 events and four Grand Slam Events. Bopanna and Qureshi competed in the four required Grand Slam Events, making it to the Semifinals at the US Open (earning 720 points) and the Quarterfinals at Roland Garros (earning 360 points). Sadly, Bopanna and Qureshi will not fulfill the final qualification requirements for the Barclays until they compete on November 7^th, at the BNP Paribas Masters 1000 tournament in Paris.

Only Bopanna and Qureshi’s top two ATP 250 tournaments will count towards their ranking for Barclays. The IndoPak Express team did not do well in many of the ATP 500 tournaments they competed in this season. The points from their best four ATP 500 tournaments are used towards their rankings for Barclays . Bopanna and Qureshi will really need to step it up at either of the last two ATP 500 tournaments this season—the Valencia Open in Spain, or the Swiss Indoors Basel in Switzerland. With only eleven days to go until the BNP Paribas Masters 1000 tournament, Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi have their work cut out for them from the Erste Bank Open to Paris.

Topics: Erste Bank Open