INDIAN-PAKISTANI PAIR ADVANCE TO SECOND ROUND

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 (Bernama) -- India's Rohan Bopanna and Pakistani
Aisam-UI-Haq Qureshi proved Asia are the emerging power in international tennis
when the duo caused the day's major upset by defeating fourth-seeded pair Simon
Aspelin of Sweden and Australian Paul Hanley in straight sets at the inaugural
Proton Malaysian Open at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil here Monday.

The Indian and Pakistani connection dominated from the start till the end to
win the match 6-3, 6-4 in one hour.

"We were out of action for four months after winning the Bangkok Challenger
in March this year when my partner Rohan suffered left knee injury which barred
him from playing competitive tennis," Aisam said.

He added that with Rohan fully recovered from injury before this tournament
started and their being awarded a main draw wildcard proved to be a golden
opportunity to make a comeback and improve their ranking in the ATP World Tour.

In their next main draw second round match on Wednesday, Rohan and Aisam
will take on either Karol Beck (Slovakia) and Jordan Kerr (Australia), or Igor
Kunitsyn (Russia) and Jaroslav Levinsky (Czech Republic).

In another doubles match, Stephen Huss (Australia) and Scott Lipsky (United
States) outclassed Christophe Rochus (Belgium) and Martin Vassallo Arguello
(Argentina) 6-4, 6-3.

In the three men's singles matches played today, two wildcard entries,
American Taylor Dent beat Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) while
Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus defeated Lu Yen-Hsun of Chinese Taipei 4-6, 6-3,
7-6(5).

In the other involving an all American match, Brendan Evans crushed Michael
Yani 6-3, 6-4.

For Tuesday's main draw matches which kick off at 11.30am, the interesting
singles' matches are between Igor Kunitsyn (Russia) and Tomas Berdych (Czech
Republic); David Ferrer (Spain) and Mikhail Youzhny (Russia); Lieyton Hewitt
(Australia) and Joachim Johansson (Sweden).

As for the doubles, the match between Polish pair Mariusz Fyrstenberg &
Marcin Matkowski and James Cerretani (United States) & Rogier Wassen (Holland)
will be the main draw.
-- BERNAMA