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Bopanna-Qureshi topple fourth seeds

July 16, 2008 15:13 IST

Rohan Bopanna and Aisam Qureshi rallied from a set down to topple fourth seeded Russian duo of Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Kunitsyn in the first round of the Indianapolis tennis championships.

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The Indo-Pak combine fired 10 aces, including four in the match tie-break, to oust Tursunov-Kunitsyn 2-6, 7-5, 10-6 on Tuesday.

Bopanna-Qureshi will meet Ashley Fisher of Australia and USA's Tripp Phillips in the second round.

Ace Indian doubles duo Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, teaming up to prepare of the Beijing Olympics, are the number one seeds in Indianapolis.

Wild card entrant Rajeev Ram, an American player of Indian origin, upset sixth seed and Newport champion Fabrice Santoro 7-6, 6-4 to advance to the second round of singles.

"It was certainly a quality win," said Ram. "He doesn't really give you anything, so putting together two sets of good tennis is great."

Ram will next take on Chinese Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu, who was a 7-6, 7-6 winner over American qualifier Justin O'Neal.

Santoro had ended the dream run of Indian Davis Cupper Prakash Amritaj on Sunday, beating him 6-3, 7-5 in the finals of the Hall of Fame tennis championships in Newport.

Amritraj, 24, returned to the Challenger circuit this week and had split sets with top seed Amer Delic in the first round before the match was called off in Aptos, California, on Tuesday.

Source: REUTERS
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