INDIAN WELLS (California), March 18 (IANS): The Indo-Pak express of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi was halted in the semifinals of the BNP Paribas ATP Tour 1000 tournament here as they went down to Belgian Xavier Malisse and Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 3-6, 8-10.
The match on Thursday went down to the wire with the Ukrainian-Belgian pair sealing off the issue in the super tie-break. There was nothing much to separate between the two teams but Mallise and Dolgopolov won more points on their first serve than Bopanna and Qureshi.
Bopanna and Qureshi, ranked 15th, had a successful week here, which included a famous win against World No.2 Indian duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes in an earlier round.
The Indo-Pak express had defeated the Serbian pair of Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki in the quarterfinals.
Anand jumps
to 2nd spot
MONACO, March 18 (PTI): World Champion Viswanathan Anand jumped to the joint second spot after signing peace with Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the fifth round of the 20th and final edition of Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament here.
Anand, who had three victories in the first four rounds was stopped by a determined Karjakin and though the Indian ace had a promising position in the rapid game of the day, the Russian fought hard.
It is normally not the case but the two drawn games helped Anand to improve his tournament position even as Levon Aronian of Armenia broke away from the field with a handsome 2-0 victory over Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan.
