Pakistan Davis Cupper Aisam Qureshi continued his ascendancy over India as he won both his matches on Friday to give Pakistan an unbeatable 2-1 lead in the inaugural four-Test bilateral tennis series.
The Pakistani duo of Qureshi and Aqeel Khan beat India's Rohan Bopanna and Mustafa Ghouse 6-3, 6-7(2), 10-6 in the deciding doubles tie after Karan Rastogi drew India abreast by winning the second singles.
Qureshi had earlier put Pakistan ahead with a 6-1, 6-7(1), 6-2 victory over Mustafa Ghouse, who replaced an indisposed Bopanna for the opening singles of the Chandigarh leg.
Earlier report: Aisam too good for Mustafa
Qureshi-Khan, the pillars of Pakistan's Davis Cup campaign for the past seven years, stepped up their game against the Indian pair, which has enjoyed a successful run of late.
Bopanna and Ghouse had stretched Mahesh Bhupathi and Mario Ancic into the third set in the final of last month's Kingfisher Open.
Pakistan took an early lead to sail through the first set. Ghouse's service remained the weak link of the team and the Pakistanis exploited it fully to break him four times in the match.
India fought back well in the second set, drawing cheers of 'Hoo haa India' (originally meant for the men in blue) from a crowd, largely comprising school children.
Bopanna-Ghouse came from behind twice in the set to keep India's chances alive.
Bopanna, who recovered to play the doubles tie, made a couple of cracking forehand returns on Khan's serve in the 12th game to force the set into a tie-break. The Indians built on an early lead to take it 7-2 but could not sustain the momentum in the super tie-break in the third set.
"It was disappointing losing here," said India's captain Nandal Bal. "We had a close match in Islamabad and here again. I was happy that the boys didn't five up. I guess the difference today was the serving."
Earlier, Rastogi scored a commanding 6-2, 6-3 victory over Khan to push the tie into a deciding singles. A strong baseliner, Rastogi powered through the first set but was made to rethink his game plan in the second.
Khan mixed his pace and used his backhand slice effectively to slow down the game. Rastogi was unable to force the pace and the game looked like stretching into the third set when he was 15-40 down at 2-3.
But the 20-year-old showed courage to go for big serves, the first of which was an ace to pull back the game. Thereon, he won three games in a row, breaking Khan at love in two games to win the set 6-3.
Rastogi had beaten Aqeel 6-0, 6-4 in Islamabad in the first leg of the tie to make it two out of two.
"Rastogi being a baseliner is the toughest to play in the Indian side," said Khan later. "He doesn't give away too much."
Coach Bal also termed Rastogi's performance as one of the highlights of the series for India.
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