Indian-Pakistani doubles team ambassadors for peace
Rohan Bopanna of India, left, and partner Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan sign autographs after winning their semifinals doubles match during the U.S. Open. (Sept. 8, 2010) Credit: AP
The news from an afternoon doubles match at the U.S. Open yesterday goes beyond a straight-sets semifinal victory by Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. By beating the Argentine pair of Eduardo Schwank and Horacio Zeballos, Bopanna and Qureshi, the No. 16 seed, advanced to tomorrow’s championship final against the top-seeded Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, of Southern California.
But that isn’t the headline, either. Bopanna and Qureshi are from India and Pakistan — bitter national rivals since the 1947 partitioning of British India based on religious demographics — who recently set about trying to arrange a tennis-for-peace exhibition.
They want to play singles against each other on the countries’ common border with Bopanna, the Indian, situated on the Pakistani side and Qureshi, the Pakistani, on the Indian side. Yesterday, the breakthrough for them was to have the United Nations ambassadors from two nations sitting side by side at Louis Armstrong Stadium, cheering them on.
“You know,” Qureshi said, “we always said sports can reach places where no religion or politics or politician can reach. I think it’s above all the religion and politics. Every day I see more Indians and Pakistanis coming, all mixed together, sitting in the crowd. You can’t tell who is Pakistani and who is Indian.”
After the match, he said, the diplomats told the players “that what we are doing is a great thing, and they both are on our side.” Bopanna and Qureshi formed their team in 2003 in the typical manner. “We just happened to be in the same tournament and we didn’t have doubles partners for the week,” Bopanna said.
It was their run to the Wimbledon quarterfinals this year that brought widespread attention, shortly after they decided to publicly champion their working relationship as proof that, “if me and Rohan can get along so well on and off the court,” Qureshi said, “there’s no reason the Indians and Pakistanis can’t get along with each other.”
“We don’t have many things in common. He likes the spicy food. I don’t. He likes to dance to slow songs. I don’t. He’s got a big game. I don’t.”
Yet they have come to be publicly inseparable through tennis. “Rohan probably doesn’t know,” Qureshi said, “but he’s very popular in Pakistan. Every time my news comes, his name is right next to me.” A diplomatic coup.
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