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Paes, Bhupati in Australian Open semis

The world number five ranked pair of Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes, seeded number two at the Australian Open, moved one step further towards a showdown in the finals with the home favourites and world number one-ranked pairing of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, with a fluent win over the Gimestop-Machpie pairing from the United States.

The win took the Paes-Bhupati duo into the semifinals.

The Indian pair took 104 minutes to force their way into the last four, of which the first set alone lasted 45 minutes.

Forced into the tiebreak in the first set, Paes and Bhupati moved their game up a notch to take it 7-6, then pulled out all stops to win the second set 6-3 in 27 minutes, then wrap up the third 6-2 in 32.

Interestingly, the match stats seem to be weighted in favour of the losing team -- five aces to three by the Indians; 75 per cent of the first serves in as opposed to 60 per cent by Paes and Bhupati, 11 winners against nine for the Indians, a 40 per cent break point conversion rate against 30 percent by the latter. In fact, the American pair won 91 points to 94 by the Indians -- the difference being that the Indians, playing well within themselves, won the key points to take the tie in straight sets.

Meanwhile, Mahesh Bhupati, in tandem with Caroline Vis of the Netherlands, moved into the last four of the mixed doubles with a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 win. The Bhupati-Vis pairing is seeded fourth, mainly thanks to the fact that the Indian enjoys a high individual ranking in doubles, coming in at number nine in the world.