Bopanna & Qureshi Reach New Haven Final

Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi advanced to their third tour-level final of 2010 after upsetting second seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi 6-4, 6-4 at the Pilot Pen Tennis Friday night in New Haven. The Indian and Pakistani duo, finalists in Nice and Casablanca earlier in the year, will chase its first title of the season Saturday against Wimbledon finalists Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau, who defeated Julian Knowle and Andy Ram 6-4, 6-3.

Bopanna also reached the Atlanta final early in the Olympus US Open Series with Kristof Vliegen and the semi-finals of Los Angeles and Washington with regular partner Qureshi, beating five-time ATP World Tour Doubles Champions Bob and Mike Bryan in the American capital.

FINAL PREVIEW

Wimbledon finalists Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Horia Tecau of Romania take on Rohan Bopanna of India and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan on Saturday in an all-unseeded doubles championship.

Both teams defeated seeds en route to the final with Lindstedt-Tecau defeating No. 3 Kubot-Marach in the first round while Bopanna-Qureshi beat No. 4 Fyrstenberg-Matkowski in the first round and No. 2 Bhupathi-Mirnyi in the semi-finals.

Lindstedt-Tecau are 2-0 this season against Bopanna-Qureshi, winning in the Casablanca final in April and in the quarter-finals in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in June, en route to the title. Overall they are 3-1 in finals this season. They advanced to their first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon (l. to Melzer-Petzschner) in July and afterwards they won the title in Bastad. They came in this week No. 9 in the ATP Doubles Team Ranking.

Lindstedt is 9-8 lifetime in ATP World Tour finals and Tecau is 4-3. All four of Tecau’s titles have come this year. Besides the three with Lindstedt, he won his first ATP World Tour title in January in Auckland (w/Daniell).

Bopanna-Qureshi are 1-2 in ATP World Tour finals this season, capturing their first title together in Johannesburg in February and reaching finals in Casablanca in April and Nice in May, both on clay.

They have a 24-12 match record together this season and they were tied No. 15 in the ATP Doubles Team Ranking. Bopanna is 2-9 in his career in ATP World Tour finals while Qureshi is 1-4.