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Paes-Bhupathy enter Dubai semis

Top seeds Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathy entered the semi-finals of the $ 1 million Dubai Tennis Open with a hard-earned 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 win over John Eagle and Andrew Florent of Australia last night.

They will now meet third seeds Patrick Galbraith (US) and Brett Steven (New Zealand), who downed Aleksander Kitinov (Macedonia) and Pavel Vizner (the Czech Republic) 6-3, 6-4 in another quarter-final.

In the other half, second seeds Donald Johnson and Francisco Montana of the US entered the last four after getting a walkover from Boris Becker (Germany) and Tim Henman (Britain).

This is the second year in a row that Becker has withdrawn from an ATP world series event due to injury.

The Americans will now meet Australian Sandon Stolle and Cyril Suk of the Czech Republic, who beat Tomas Carbonel and Francisco Roig of Spain 6-4, 6-2.

Paes and Bhupathy were in full control of the first set against the Australian doubles specialists as the breaks kept coming in. But in the second, they were down 5-6 after faltering on Paes's serve. The Australians went on to clinch the set.

In the decider, Bhupathy lost the serve at 5-3, but the Indians managed to break Eagle in the next game without conceding a point.

The Indians seemed distracted by the windy conditions and the restless crowd, especially in the third set. Paes joined the umpire in requesting the spectators to stop shouting during rallies.

The Australians played brilliantly, seldom allowing the Indians to get into their rhythm, both at the net and in mid-court half-volleys. But Paes and Bhupathy chipped in with percentage shots when they mattered most and managed to outwit their rivals.

UNI