South Africa's Wesley Moodie again proved a road-block for the Indo-Pak pair of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam Qureshi, denying them a doubles title for the second week running.
Top seeds Moodie and compatriot Rik de Voest beat second seeds Bopanna-Qureshi 6-4, 7-6 (4) in the final of the US $50,000 ATP Challenger in New Delhi on Friday.
Moodie had combined with Stephen Huss to beat the duo 7-6(10), 6-3 in the Challenger in Kuala Lumpur last week, after having eliminated Bopanna and Qureshi in the first and second round respectively in the singles.
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There was some consolation for Qureshi though, as he entered the singles final, beating Romania's Adrian Cruciat 6-1, 6-4 in the semi-finals. He will meet meet Jae Sung An of Korea, who beat Austrian Martin Slanar 6-4, 7-6 in the other semi-final.
Bopanna, playing a Challenger at home after almost an year, was not too disappointed with the result and took heart in the fact that he had made it to the 10th final of the 11 tournaments he's played on the circuit this year.
"It's been a good year; unfortunately we again lost in the final here," the 27-year-old said from New Delhi.
"I've played 11 tournaments in the year and reached final in 10 of them, and the 11th was a semi-final."
Bopanna has won six titles in his breakthrough doubles season of the year, four of which have come with Pakistan's Qureshi.
After playing another Challenger in New Delhi, he and Qureshi, along with Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza, will have a short training stint with South Africa's Shyamal Vallabhjee in Bangalore.
"It's not like an official camp. All of us just thought rather than going anywhere we'd bring a trainer here. We are not looking at any specific areas but basically just trying to get into shape for the coming season."
Bopanna will open the season with the Hopman Cup, to be played in Perth from December 29.
India, who stunned top teams like Croatia and Czech Republic last year, will play their first match against the tough US duo of Serena Williams and Mardy Fish.
"Last year we performed very well, so there are great expectations. Playing such high-level of competition is always exciting and I am looking forward to it," added Bopanna.
