Tennis: Aisam, partner reach quarterfinals

ISLAMABAD: Aisamul Haq Qureshi, together with Polish player M Matkowski, has reached the Australian Open men’s doubles quarterfinals for the very first time. The pair has earned walk over in the pre-quarters Saturday.

Though it has not yet been officially announced by the Australian Open organizers in Melbourne, The News has learnt from the sources close to Aisam that the talented Korean Hyeon Chung who upset world No 4 German Alexander Zverve in a cracker of five-set thriller, together with his partner R Albert has opted out of the match against Aisam and Matkowski. That means Aisam has made it to the Australian Open quarterfinals for the very first time. The Pakistani tennis icon early had reached the final of men’s and mix doubles final of US Open and men’s doubles semis of French Open. This is the very first time that he has reached the quarterfinals of Australian Open.The pre-quarters against Chung and Albert were scheduled to be played on Sunday.

“Chung possibly eying a tough fourth round match in men’s singles against Novak Djokovic has opted out of the doubles, giving easy ride to Aisam and Matkowski,” the source in Melbourne said. Aisam and his partner pair has been seeded 16th for the doubles event. Aisam is also competing in the mixed doubles where along with Chinese girl Z Yang, he has made it to round of 32.