London: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi began their ATP World Tour Finals campaign with a defeat against Daniel Nestor and Max Mirnyi, albeit after putting up a good fight in their Group B match in London on Sunday.
The fifth-seeded Indo-Pak pair lost 6-7 (2), 6-4, 9-11 to the third-seeded Canadian-Belarus combo in one hour and 41 minutes at the O2 Arena.
Bopanna and Qureshi will now have to win the remaining two matches in their group to be in contention for a spot in the semi-finals.
Mirnyi and Nestor took 2-0 and 4-2 leads in the first set, but Bopanna and Qureshi worked their way back with breaks of the Nestor serve. Bopanna and Qureshi even had a set point in the 10th game of the first set but squandered the opportunity. It was a good comeback as they were down 2-4 at one stage, but the pair won three games on the trot to take a mini 5-4 lead.
After they missed out on converting that set point, however, the experienced pair of Nestor and Mirnyi, who are making their team debut at the season finale, cashed in on the mistakes of their young rivals and nosed ahead by prevailing in the tie-breaker.
Bopanna and Qureshi came back well in the second set and broke their rivals early, apart from saving three break points, and drew parity in the match.
In the tense super tie-breaker, they were ahead 6-3, but could not hold on to the lead. Bopanna and Qureshi powered their way to 8-6, but Mirnyi and Nestor drew level. Qureshi fired an ace when they faced the first match point, but could not save the second one. Nestor closed out the eventful match with a second-serve ace.
The experienced Indian duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will compete in Group A. The top two teams in each group will make the semi-finals.
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