Rohan Bopanna and Aisam Qureshi playing on the same team at the Mumbai Open was the charming rejoinder after the intense Twenty20 World Championship between their countries - India and Pakistan - on an exciting Monday evening.
Just as the city was soaking in India's triumph in South Africa, the news that the first round doubles game was still on, after a rain delay, created a stir among the crowd.
Bopanna and Qureshi put in a clinical performance to eliminate the Indian wildcard pair of Stephen Amritraj and Somdev Dev Varman 6-3, 6-2.
"We gave a solid performance, played better on the big points. In the second set, Rohan made all the returns as he always does."
Most would've tipped the experienced Indo-Pak pair to go through with ease, but the story of the day was always the reaction on the more popular cricket match on the other coast of the Arabian Sea. And after the brief formalities of getting the players to speak on the tennis match, the conversation inevitably shifted to cricket.
"I was hoping to avoid it," said Qureshi. "It was an interesting match and it's just a game so doesn't matter."
"In fact, I'm happy they didn't win otherwise I would be at the receiving end of it," joked the Pakistani, who came to the post-match media conference putting an ice-pack on his elbow.
"It was there before the match also," explained Qureshi, who had picked up the elbow injury during the final qualifying round of the US Open.
For most part of the match, the players were trying to blank out the noise of fire-crackers that notoriously went off at the most inopportune moments.
"It was a distraction for all for of us," said Bopanna, who preferred to grin through the press meet with Qureshi fielding all the questions.
"You never know, they could be going off for us," added Qureshi.
