Top seeds Oliver Marach and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi won their first title in their partnership debut, eking out a tight victory over unseeded Michael Kohlmann and Alexander Waske 7-6(4), 7-6(5) at the PTT Thailand Open 2011.
The Austrian-Pakistani duo lost just one set (to Murray/Sa in the quarter-finals) en route to their title.
The final’s first set saw an exchange of breaks before the top-seeded pair won the tie-breaker 7-6(4). In the final stanza, the Germans survived a match point in the ninth game to force another decider. Marach and Qureshi rode on a 4-0 lead in the tiebreak to seal the match 7-6(5).
This was the third career title for Qureshi and the eleventh for Marach.
“I feel very excited and great. Oliver is a great player. He’s been in the Top Ten for so many years. It’s my pleasure playing with him this week. I love coming back to Thailand, where I won Futures and Challengers also. On behalf of myself and the Pakistanis at home, we all support the flood victims because Pakistan has been hit by floods as well as Thailand. I wish all the Thai people and the country all the patience and courage to overcome the natural disaster,” said Qureshi
“It was a very exciting final. It could go either way. I had a great week playing with Aisam here and hope we can play again somewhere else. It was the first time for me here and I hope to come back next year,” said Marach.
