Thaindian News

Paris, Nov 13 (IANS) India’s Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi captured their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title when they outclassed Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 6-4 in the BNP Paribas Masters final here Sunday.

The Indo-Pak Express were too strong for the French wild cards. This has been an eventful week for the duo as this win comes close to the heels of them becoming the seventh team to qualify for the prestigious Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

“This win gives us a lot of confidence, it is our biggest title by far,” said Bopanna. “All the hard work over the years has paid off.”

Bopanna and Qureshi had taken out No. 2 seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic and No. 3 seeds Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor to reach their first Masters 1000 final together. As champions, they earned 1000 ATP Doubles Team Ranking points, taking them to fifth in the year-to-date standings.

The seventh seeds made a strong start to Sunday’s final at the Palais Omnisports, racing to a 5-2 double break advantage before closing out the first set in 29 minutes.

In the close second set, they broke down their French opponents in the ninth game before serving out victory in 64 minutes. They won 92 per cent of points behind their first serve and did not face a single break point.

The 2010 US Open runners-up were contesting their 11th tour-level final together and improved to a 4-7 mark. It was their third trophy of the season, following victories in June at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle and at last month’s If Stockholm Open.

“We are ecstatic to win our first Masters 1000 title,” said Qureshi. “Last year we didn’t play well in finals and this year we have won three out of three.”

With this win, the IndoPak Express will be ranked a career high World No. 5 when the ATP rankings are updated Monday.

Unseeded French pairing Benneteau and Mahut had put together an equally impressive run to reach the final, upsetting top seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan in the second round before ousting sixth seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in the quarter-finals.