Dubai: India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi have won their fifth ATP World Tour doubles title and the first first since reuniting at the start of 2014 by beating Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic 6-4, 6-3 in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
The ‘IndoPak Express’ received 500 Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings as they claimed victory in 68 minutes, winning 78 per cent of their service points and breaking the top seeds twice from seven opportunities, reports ATP Tour website.
“We are happy to be back to winning ways and winning a title,” said Bopanna.
“We got back this year hoping to continue the streak and doing well. We started off well in Sydney. We lost to Zimonjic and Nestor there in the final and happy to win this title against them and get a little sweet revenge back.”
Qureshi said: “We had in our mind we had to go all out, because the last time we lost to them, and this time we just had to go out aggressively. I think we had a very aggressive mindset, and luckily it just paid off. I’m really happy that we ended up getting a win today.”
It was Bopanna and Qureshi’s first title together since the 2011 BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.
Bopanna improved to a 10-17 finals record after lifting the Dubai trophy for the second time. He previously won it in 2012 with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi.
Qureshi won his 10th title in 21 finals.