Aisam Qureshi crushed a tiny spark of fightback from India's Mustafa Ghouse to drive Pakistan to a 1-0 lead in the opening singles at the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association, in the third leg of the four-Test inaugural bilateral series, on Friday.
Ghouse, who stepped in for an unwell Rohan Bopanna at the last minute, went down to Pakistan's top player 6-1, 6-7 (1), 6-2.
India's number one player pulled out of the singles on the morning of the match. Nandan Bal, India's non-playing captain and coach, informed that the 26-year-old was down with fever and advised by the doctor to rest. His fitness will be reassessed at 1300 IST before the doubles game.
Playing his first singles match for India, Ghouse looked helpless against Qureshi's serve. The Pakistani, who served 11 aces in the match to Ghouse's five, ran over his opponent to take in the first set 6-1.
The second set seemed to be headed for a similar script when Qureshi raced to a 3-0 lead. Ghouse hung in there, staving off the strong challenge from Qureshi in his subsequent service games.
At 4-5 down, Ghouse's last-gasp effort paid off. With Qureshi relaxing a little, the Indian started attacking his second serve, coming around and slapping it on the forehand to make some good returns. Qureshi served two double-faults in the game as India drew level at 5-5.
"I took it easy that time," said Qureshi later. "He wasn't even touching most of my serves and I thought I would also win that game easily but suddenly Mustafa came back and was hitting a lot of balls."
"I knew it was my last chance," said Ghouse. "I had a few chances in the earlier service game too and he was getting a little tired."
There was a spring in his stride after drawing level. With the momentum and crowd support his way, Ghouse went into the lead at 6-5 for the first time in the match. He dominated the tie-breaker, winning it 7-1 to force the match into the third set.
But Qureshi, whose game is hinged on his strong serve, came back strongly in the decider. Once the serve was back on track, his attacking volleys followed and Ghouse once again didn't have an answer to the Pakistani's attack. Qureshi won the set 6-2 to finish the match in an hour and 21 minutes.
