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.