Gallant Aisam goes down fighting

LAHORE - Aisamul-Haq Qureshi created history yet again by becoming the first Pakistani to reach the third round of Wimbledon twice. Valiant Aisam, pairing with India's Prakash Amritaj, lost in the doubles event but not before giving a serious scare to the fourth seed pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles who share between them quite a few grand slam titles.
Aisam, whose serve had been impeccable throughout the qualifying rounds and the previous two rounds, just could not match the heavy service returns and sharp volleying by the pair who were once ranked world number one.
Aisam and Amritaj showed their resolve in the opening game of the match by breaking back to make it 2-2. But once the serve was broken, they were unable to recover losing the first set 6-4.
Aisam and Prakash offered epic resilience to the superior ranked pair in the second set. There were no more service errors and the pair looked a lot sharper. The only apparent problem area was the opponents' serve. With gritty display, the Aisam-Prakash duo challenged their experienced opponents to the limits. Mark Knowles' serve was beautifully handled when it all got to 5-6. Despite the added pressure, Aisam and Prakash put up splendid show and were able to win the second set 7-5.
After a nerve-wrecking 11 games in third set, it was Knowles' serve that came under fire again, when him and Bhupathi faced a set point at 30-40. However, Knowles, as expected, raised his game incredibly well and overpowered his determined challengers. He dished out three huge serves to save the game and managed to carry the momentum into the tie-breaker. At this moment, a rain downpour stopped the play. On resumption, they dominated the tie-breaker and won the third set.
With momentum firmly in their favour, the Indo-Bahamian pair broke early in the fourth set to take a 3-0 lead. There came another rain delay, and when the game resumed, Bhupathi and Knowles looked in complete control. They did not let the game slip and ran away with the set 6-0
Aisam and Prakash can take heart from the fact that they offered such a big a challenge to one of tournament's best rated pair.