The Indo Pak Express calls it quit

Tennis doubles partners Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi have decided to part ways.

Dubbing themselves the Indo Pak Express, the India-born Bopanna and his Pakistani counterpart Qureshi received lots of favorable attention during the 2010 tennis season as they declared themselves Champions for Peace and wore warmup jackets emblazoned with the slogan “Stop War, Start Tennis.” Doubles star Bob Bryan went so far as to tell the New York Times that the pairing was good for “world peace.”

The BBC has more details about the split:

The men, who met when they were 16 and are now 30, began playing as partners in 2003.

“As the season has ended now, I can confirm that I am playing with Mahesh [Bhupathi] in 2012,” Bopanna told Indian Express.

He declined to give a reason for the split.

“Who I want to play with is my decision… I did have a successful year with Aisam [Qureshi] but now I am starting a new year with Mahesh, and it’s as simple as that.”

While the pair did have some success this year, including a victory at the Stockholm Open, things had not been going well recently. The duo lost in straight sets at the ATP World Tour Finals in London last week.

Saturday at the U.S. Open: Qureshi thrives, Bhupathi falters

I’ve always appreciated the fact that the U.S. Open is just a short train ride away from my home. I had the pleasure of attending the Open yesterday afternoon and thought I’d report back on my day.

In addition to seeing Roger Federer defeat Paul-Henri Matthieu and Maria Sharapova absolutely thrash Beatrice Capra, I also got to watch some doubles matches live for the first time.

While I was disappointed that I missed seeing the doubles pairing of Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and India’s Rohan Bopanna by just a day (the pair advanced to the quarterfinals Sunday after defeating French Open champions Daniel Nestor of Canada and Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic), I did get to see Qureshi play with his mixed doubles partner Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic as they triumphed over Russia’s Yaroslava Shvedova and Austria’s Julian Knowle.

Things didn’t go as well for India’s Mahesh Bhupathi. He and his mixed doubles partner Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia lost in straight sets to Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi and Robert Lindstedt of Sweden.

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Did anyone else attend the U.S. Open this weekend? Who did you see?

All photos by Eliot Caroom. Used with permission.