London: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi lost to Daniel Nestor and Max Mirnyi 6-7(2), 6-4, 9-11 in their opening match of the ATP World Tour Finals here on Sunday.

The fifth-seeded Indo-Pak Express gave a tough fight to the third-seeded Canadian-Belarus pair before losing the match in one hour and 41 minutes. Now to be in contention, Bopanna and Qureshi will have to win their remaining two matches in their group.

The Indo-Pak pair had their chances in the first set as they had a set point in the 10th game, but missed the opportunity to give the set to Nestor and Mirnyi in a tie-break. But the Indo-Pak pair came back strong in the second and saved three breakpoints to win the set 6-4.

However, they lost the decider 9-11 in the tie-breaker.

Mirnyi and Nestor are playing here as a team for the first time, but have a lot of experience with other partners at this event – Mirnyi won here once and Nestor three times.  The Indo-Pak Express, who are playing here for the first time but are on a hot streak, having just won the Masters 1000 crown in Paris.