Sixth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi overcame a stiff challenge from Divij Sharan and Rameez Junaid in their men's doubles first round match at the French Open tennis tournament here today.
The 'Indo-Pak Express' scraped past India's Sharan and Australian Junaid 7-5 6-7 (4) 7-5 in a match lasting a little over two hours. The seasoned pair next takes on either Jonathan Erlich and Marcelo Melo or Frantisek Cermak (CZE) and Mikhail Elgin.
The experience of playing close matches bailed Bopanna and Qureshi out of trouble. Under pressure after losing the second set tie-break, the duo stepped up its game in the decider, converting all three break points and serving well consistently.
Overall, Bopanna and Qureshi won five out of their 10 break points while Sharan and Junaid made use of three of the five opportunities they got. The World No. 7 combine hit 10 winners to their opponents' two.
