Bopanna-Qureshi in sixth Challenger final

Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi are on course for their fifth ATP Challenger title in five months after a hard-fought 7-6(10), 7-6(4) victory over Benjamin Balleret and Sebastien de Chaunac in the semi-finals in Delhi on Thursday.

Seeded second in the tournament, the Indo-Pakistani duo had to dig deep and utilise the understanding developed from their four-year combination to come out trumps.

The opposition pair, from Monaco and France, gave Bopanna and Qureshi a tough time and the Europeans could have won the tie-breaker in the first set but for some unforced errors.

The second set also was stretched to the tie-breaker though this time the Indo-Pak pair won it easier than in the earlier set.

In the title round, Bopanna and Qureshi will take on the top seeded South African pair of Wesley Moodie and Rik de Voest, who escaped with a 6-7(4), 6-4, 16-14 win over the Russian duo of Pavel Chekhov and Michail Elgin in a marathon semi-final.

On Friday, Bopanna and Qureshi will be playing their sixth ATP Challenger final in five months.

For Qureshi, it was double delight as he also scored an upset 6-2, 6-3 victory over top seed Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic in the singles quarter-finals.

In the last four round, the sixth seed will play eighth seed Adrain Cruciat of Romania, who also upset fourth seeded South African Rik De Voist 7-6(3), 6-1.

The other semi-final will be between Martin Slanar of Austria and Jae Sung An of Korea.