Doubles Team Makes Statement by Raising Racket

NEW YORK -- They had barely won their first-round match at the U.S. Open, and they stayed and signed autographs for everyone of all sizes, shapes, colors. Everyone blended together.

Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi of Pakistan and his doubles partner Rohan Bopanna of India are friends and partners from places you don't see friends or partners. India and Pakistan are almost always at war with each other, are always in distrust. Nuclear tensions continue to rise, and Qureshi and Bopanna are out there, playing tennis.

What a simple thing to do to make a big statement. But have they had any negative responses from Pakistanis or Indians?

"None,'' Qureshi said, smiling as he left the court. "Did you see the crowd?''

Yes, but I couldn't tell which fans were from which country.

"Me neither,'' he said. "That's the point.''

Sometimes, the loudest statements can be screamed out without words, but instead with quiet action. In this case, it was even better, as the action was not meant to make a point. It simply was an accident.

Just two guys who were looking for the right doubles partner. So Qureshi and Bopanna, who play their second-round match Friday in Flushing Meadows, are traveling the world on the tennis tour making an important statement simply by being who they are, together.

"Even today, we're not going as a political statement,'' Bopanna said. "We're just two guys together, playing tennis.''

Well, that's how it started in 2005. But then they were noticed. And they have taken the responsibility to send the message.

Stop War. Start Tennis.

That was on their warmups at Wimbledon, the idea of their coach, Robert Davis. And in the past couple weeks, they have started Facebook and Twitter pages.

"Wimbledon was the first time we did something like that,'' Bopanna said of sending a message. "No one asked about it before. We are trying to promote peace through sports.''

What amazes them most is to see Indians cheering for a team with Qureshi and Pakistanis cheering for Bopanna.

They had known each other since they were juniors, and Qureshi would come to India to play tournaments. As pros, they first came together in 2005, Bopanna said, looking to overcome the loneliness of life on the tennis tour.

Bopanna speaks Hindi and Qureshi speaks Urdu. Qureshi says the languages are 90 percent alike. There aren't many players on tour speaking either language, frankly, so they found that they could speak easily with each other.

They became friends, had dinner together, watched cricket together. And then they tried doubles.

Honestly, the great thing about them is how unassuming they are. They realize they are part of something big, and they willingly talked about it with me in the players lounge at the tournament in Cincinnati a few weeks ago. But they also were hungry, and wanted to run to the Waffle House for a meal.

"The restaurant at our hotel is too expensive,'' Qureshi said.

Qureshi is also working on a Masters degree online at Phoenix University, and had a paper to turn in the other day. He had brought a computer from overseas, though, and found that he needed to download something to make it work. Time running short to turn in his paper, he rushed to WalMart and a few other stores before finding what he needed, downloaded it, and beat the deadline by minutes.

In LA, they got into a cab, and the driver asked if he had seen them in the paper that day. It's the kind of thing that happens to superstars every day. To these guys, it was a thrill.

So there is something charming about their story. And somehow, it seems that tennis is the perfect venue for such a thing,

"We are trying to promote peace through sports."
-- Rohan Bopanna
Athletes don't tend to be the most enlightened, honestly. But the tennis tour travels around the world, with players from all over coming together each week. It's almost a traveling world community, really. And in some ways, players can't help but to run into their neighbors every day. It just so happens, though, that their neighbors are from different countries, different cultures.

Indian tennis player Sania Mirza married Pakistani cricket star Shoab Malik this year, and it definitely caused a stir, a controversy filled with negative press. Bopanna said he and Qureshi avoided that because they aren't big stars, weren't big enough to create a stink.

Now, they are getting some attention, and also are turning into a good team. They reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and are seeded No. 16 at the Open.

But they still haven't heard anything negative.

The one place they do have trouble, especially Qureshi?

"Every time I come through customs into the U.S., it takes three hours,'' he said. "It's the same thing every time. They take fingerprints, do a eye scan, leave me in a room for an hour and a half, and then come back.''

He isn't bitter about it.

"I understand,'' he said.

And he keeps a smile on his face, when he talks about what happened in 2002. That's when he was looking for a doubles partner in hopes of signing up for the Wimbledon qualifying tournament. While Qureshi (shown right with Bopanna) waited there, wondering who he could play with, he saw another player, Amir Hadad, doing the same thing.

They were a natural team.

One problem: Hadad is from Israel. The Pakistan tennis federation wouldn't have it.

"They said they were going to ban me from Davis Cup, from playing for our country,'' Qureshi said. "They didn't want me to play the first round because he's a Jew.

"They wouldn't have even wanted me step on the court if I weren't playing against him. So, the fact I was playing with him was really big deal.''

"I told them, 'Sports is above religion and culture and politics. You can't mix them.' "

He played, anyway.

That year, the United States Tennis Association offered Qureshi and Hadad a wild-card entry into the main draw of the U.S. Open. While there, he was given the Arhtur Ashe Humanitarian Award.

Well, it's all nice and good to do something for humanity. But while Qureshi and Bopanna are honored, they have something more important. They have a tennis match to win.

Email me at gregcouch09@aol.com; Follow me on Twitter @gregcouch