Indo-Pak express to reunite: Rohan Bopanna to restart partnership with Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi

India’s Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi reached US Open final in 2010, where they were defeated by the Bryan brothers

There will be some more happy news for Indian fans as India’s top doubles player and world no.5 Rohan Bopanna has announced that he will reunite with Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. Coming after Sania Mirza’s decision to play with Cara Black, the news of their reunion was published by the gulf news.

“We’ve already spoken about this and we will be back on the Tour for 2014,” Bopanna confirmed to Gulf News on the sidelines of the Shanghai Rolex Masters here. “It will be good to be back again. Let’s wait and see how things work out next season.”

The Indo-Pak duo was a very successful one as they progressed swiftly from playing the Challenger level tournaments to reaching the US Open finals, entering the top 10 and making it to the year end championships in 2011. They also have 4 title together from 11 finals.

This year, Rohan Bopanna changed partners several times. He started the season with Rajeev Ram, won a tournament with Colin Fleming, reunited with Mahesh Bhupathi and played with few others before teaming up with Edouard Roger-Vasselin during Wimbledon.

Bopanna and Edouard have had a decent season. They played just a few tournaments but are still in contention for a spot in the year end championships, though it seems to be a difficult prospect as of now.

Qureshi has played the entire season with Dutchman Jean Julien-Rojer. They did not enjoy a very good season apart from a title at Miami Masters. They had also partnered in 2013. They are another team in contention for a final spot, and are better posed to clinch it.

A reunion will surely make them strong contenders for many titles, and they could probably win a Grand Slam too.

2013 was a year of complete chaos in doubles with many players failing to find partners to consistently play with. With many doubles partnerships withering, some new partnerships  burgeoning, and others reuniting, it will be exciting to see how the doubles players perform in 2014.