Bopanna-Qureshi win Paris Masters

Paris: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi won their first ever ATP Masters tournament after whipping away the challenge of Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut in straight sets in the final here on Sunday. The seventh seeded Indo-Pak pair took just 65 minutes to defeat the French wildcard entries 6-2, 6-4 and pocket their third title of the season. They had earlier won the Gerry Weber Open at Halle and the Stockholm Open. [caption id=“attachment_130237” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Rohan Bopanna (R) and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi took just 65 minutes to defeat the French wildcard pair of Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 6-4 and pocket their third title of the season. Jacques Demarthon/AFP”] [/caption] Bopanna and Qureshi, who have already qualified for the season finale in London, earned 1000 ranking points each and split euro 134,500 as prize money. Bopanna and Qureshi created chances in a jiffy and broke their rivals in the third and fifth games to open up a comprehensive 4-1 lead in the opening set within 20 minutes into the match. Twice they were down 0-30 but did not lose control over the set and comfortably sealed it. Benneteau and Mahut, who had shocked top seeds Mike and Bob Bryan en route to the final, gave a better account of themselves in the second set but could not stop the in-form Indo-Pak Express from lifting the title. A good battle followed in the second set as the two pairs were locked at 4-4. But Bopanna and Qureshi broke Mahut when the Frenchman committed his second double fault in the ninth game, sixth overall. The Indo-Pak Express then served out the match in the next game after a few anxious moments. PTI