Aisam-Rojer to battle Bhupathi-Bopanna for Paris Masters title

By Alexia Krause

PARIS, France (TheSportsNEXT) November 4, 2012: Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and his partner Jean-Julien Rojer stormed their way into BNP Paribas Masters final with 0-6 6-4 11-9 victory over Marin Cilic and Marcelo Melo in Paris on Saturday.

The Qureshi-Rojer pair won the encounter in 82 minutes despite the fact that Cilic-Melo pair won more points in the match.

This is the third title for Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Julien Rojer as pair this season and they have already qualified for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals which swings into action from November 5 in London.

The seventh seeded pair of Jean-Julien Rojer and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi have been playing the best tennis in the BNP Paribas Masters and they used their good form against Marin Cilic and Marcelo Melo especially after going down in the first set in a no-contest.

Aisam ul Haq and Julien Rojer, who have entered their third final this season after winning titles at the Estoril Open and Gerry Weber Open in Halle, stormed their way back into contention by winning the second set 6-4 and then showed great nerves in the final set before winning it by 11-9.

It is important to mention that Aisam ul Haq is defending his title in Paris which he had won last year with his Indian partner Rohan Bopanna. His current partner Julien Rojer is contesting for his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title.

Interestingly, both the finalist pairs have one player who is a defending champion at BNP Paribas Open. Aisam’s former partner Rohan Bopanna also made it into the final with his compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi when they defeated Paul Hanley and Jonathan Marray by 7-5 6-3 after saving five break points on their serve.

The pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna have already won a title this season at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and ended as runners-up at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio and the Shanghai Rolex Masters.

The two BNP Paribas Open finalist pairs have already qualified into the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Aisam ul Haq and Julien Roger got into the ATP World Tour Finals after their second round victory over Feliciano Lopez and Nenad Zimonjic while Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna qualified after clinching the winner-take-all quarter-final encounter against Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski.