Adil Najam
Aisamul Haq Qureshi - Pakistan’s most prominent tennis star about whom we have written at ATP here and here - and his doubles partner James Cerritani scored a high profile upset by beating World Number One Roger Federer and his partner Marco Chiudinelliini straight sets at the Basel Open today. That this happened in Federer’s hometown makes this even more poignant for Aisam and partner.
Having rooted for Aisamul Haq Qureshi before (here and here), let us take this oportunity to root for him again. Well done, Aisam.
Here are details, from Dawn:
Pakistan’s tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi and his doubles partner James Cerritani brushed aside tennis great and world number one, Roger Federer and his Swiss compatriot Marco Chiudinelli in straight sets at the Basel Open on Tuesday.
Qureshi was at his serve-and-volleying best in the round-of-32 match as he and Cerritani cruised to victory against Federer and Chidudinelli 6-4, 6-3 to book their place in the quarter-finals of the $2.6 million ATP tournament.
Playing in Federer’s hometown, Qureshi and his partner were in control of the match from the first game and although Federer and Chiudinelli produced moments of brilliance, the grit and powerful serve-and-volley game of Qureshi and Cerritani saw them through to the end.
The Pak-Americanpair will now play tournament first-seeds Daniel Nestor (Canada) and Nenad Zimonjic (Serbia) in the quarter-finals.
Bravo Asim!
Not a small feat to beat an opposition featuring the great Roger Federer. Though Federer is my favourite and I hate to see him lose, I guess, if I have been watching this match, for the first time I would have been cheering his opponent(s).
Asim has come a long way. Her are some statistics about him:
Age: 29
Height: 6 feet
Coach: Robert Davis
Current ATP ranking: 71
2009 highlight: played Wimbledon doubles partnering with Amritraj Prakrash from India. Lost in the round of 16.
Also played US open partnering with Jarkko Neiminen fom Finland but lost in round of 32.
He played in some other small ranking tournaments and winning a couple (Thailand & Japan) of them as well.
An interesting point to note is that during 2009, he played with 15-16 different partners. Not having a steady tennis partner could be one of the factors, among others, for his inconsistent record.We hope that someone in Pakistan would see his talent and help him in further honing his tennis skills.
Asim/Cerretani’s next match at Basel tournament is tough one with top seed pair of Nestor/Zimonjic. Let us all pray and cheer for their victory.
Excellent Performance Aisamul Haq. The nation is proud of you. Sky is the limit. James Cerritani congratulations too! Well done & Keep it up!
Yes my people give this post as many comments as possible. We need to highlight the positive things rather then giving time to NRO and everything else. The nation needs happiness and good news to be reflected on television and elsewhere so that the depression Pakistan is in can be minimized. God Bless Pakistan!