Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Punjabi, Urdu: اعصام الحق قریشی; born 17 Mar 1980) is a Pakistani professional tennis player who specialises in doubles.
He is the only Pakistani player ever to reach a Grand Slam final, having done so in both men's and mixed doubles at the 2010 US Open, alongside Rohan Bopanna and Květa Peschke respectively.
Qureshi is also the most successful Davis Cup player in Pakistan's history, with the team most notably reaching the World Group play-offs in 2005, being defeated by Chile.
[2] Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi was born in a Punjabi family[3] and grew up in Lahore, Pakistan; swimming, playing cricket and football being his favorite pastimes at his alma-mater Crescent Model Higher Secondary School.
Qureshi and his doubles partner Bopanna also created a campaign, "Stop War Start Tennis", with their goal of playing a match on the border of India and Pakistan.
Aisam then began to compete in more on the Challenger circuit, reaching the semi-finals at the Indian Oil Servo Cup in Calcutta in February, defeated by Tuomas Ketola.
ATP chief executive Mark Miles said, "During a summer when fear and hatred garnered much of the headlines, Amir and Aisam-ul-Haq provided much-needed relief with their simple message about tolerance through tennis."
Aisam went to Mecca, Saudi Arabia to represent Pakistan at the Islamic Solidarity Games where he won 3 Golds in the singles, doubles, and team events.
Aisam stayed in Europe to play at the Arpa Ceramic Cup in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and reached another doubles semi-final, with Mustafa Ghouse.
The season continued to be a struggle, however, in June he made it to only his second-ever ATP tournament at the Ordina Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, losing out to third seed Mario Ančić, 6–7(3), 7–6, 5–7, in a closely fought match.
He qualified at the ATP tournament in Halle, Germany, for the Gerry Weber Open where he beat World number 11, and Wimbledon Semi-finalist Richard Gasquet, 7–6(10), 6–4, which has been the biggest victory of his career to date.
[19] Aisam returned home and picked up the "Salaam Pakistan Awards" alongside footballer Muhammad Essa and squash player Maria Toor Pakay.
Aisam also resumed his partnership with Bopanna and easily won their first-round encounter, beating Indian duo Stephen Amritraj and Somdev Devvarman 6–3, 6–2.
He then paired up with longtime doubles partner Bopanna at the SAP Open in San Jose, and was knocked out of the first round by third seeds Max Mirnyi and Jamie Murray 4–6, 4–6.
Then in the Stockholm Open, Aisam teamed up with Mario Ančić, however, they were unable to get past the first round, losing to first seeds Jonas Björkman and Kevin Ullyett 5–7, 4–6.
He traveled to Kolding, Denmark to play in the Kobstaedernes ATP Challenger, reaching the doubles semi-finals before going on to Russia to take part in St. Petersburg Open where he partnered Rogier Wassen, but they lost to Igor Kunitsyn and Marat Safin 3–6, 6–2 9–11 in the first round.
On 3 November 2009, Qureshi with his partner James Cerretani defeated Roger Federer and Marco Chiudinelli in straight sets at the Basel Open[dead link] Doubles.
Qureshi and Bopanna then made their second ATP final of the year at the 2010 Grand Prix Hassan II in Casablanca, Morocco, but were defeated by Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecău, 2–6, 6–3, [7–10].
In the interim period between Wimbledon and the 2010 US Open, the South Asian duo made an appearance in the semifinals at the 2010 Legg Mason Tennis Classic, where they lost to eventual champions Mardy Fish and Mark Knowles after a dramatic straight-sets upset of second seeds Bob and Mike Bryan in the quarterfinal round.
The duo had a disappointing second-round exit against Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski, the eighth seeds, at the 2010 Western & Southern Financial Group Masters shortly before their return to New York.
Bopanna and Qureshi's run at the Monte Carlo Masters ended on Saturday when they were beaten in the semifinals by unseeded South Americans Juan Ignacio Chela and Bruno Soares, 2–6, 7–6(4), 7–10, in 95 minutes.
They went as tenth seeds to Roland Garros, breezed through to the quarter-finals, and then beat favorites third-seeded Llodra Zimonjic, but lost in the semi-finals to the Bryan brothers.
Aisam-ul-Haq defended his Gerry Weber Open men's doubles title with Dutch partner Jean-Julien Rojer, defeating Conrad Huey (Philippines) and Scott Lipsky of the US, 6–4, 6–3.
In 2014, Qureshi won the doubles title with Rohan Bopanna at the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships, beating Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić.
[24] Qureshi entered the 2016 US Open (tennis) doubles event, partnering with Sweden's Robert Lindstedt where they lost in the quarterfinals to the top-seeded French duo of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut.
Qureshi also played mixed doubles with China's Xu Yifan but they lost to Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova & Brazil's Bruno Soares in the first round.
At the Delray Beach Open he reached his second ATP final for the year with Nedovyesov, this time losing to the pair of Marcelo Arévalo and Jean-Julien Rojer 2–6, 7–6(7–5), [4–10].
[30] In July, he won a title in Iași partnering Colombian player Nicolás Barrientos where they defeated the romanian pair of Gabi Adrian Boitan and Bogdan Pavel 6–3, 6–3 in the final.
[31] In September, he playing with Dutch player Sander Arends lost in the final of the Istanbul Challenger 6–7(3–7), 3–6 to the pair of Luke Johnson and Skander Mansouri.
[44] They won their first round and quarterfinal matches in straight sets over the pairs of Ivan Gakhov / Ryan Nijboer and Karol Drzewiecki / Szymon Walkow, respectively.