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Paes-Bhupathi rally to make semis
July 31, 2004 13:07 IST
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi continued their victorious comeback as they beat Jared Palmer of the United States and Pavel Vizner of the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals of the $2.5 million ATP Masters Series in Toronto, Canada, on Friday night.
The eight seeds staged a remarkable comeback to win 2-6, 6-7(5), 6-3 and set up a semi-final clash with fourth seeds Mark Knowles of The Bahamas and Daniel Nestor of Canada.
Knowles and Nestor beat the Israeli pair of Jonathan Elrich and Andy Ram 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in their quarter-final match.
Palmer and Vizner started well, breaking the Indian pair twice in the first set to win 6-2.
The second set went into the tie-breaker which Bhupathi-Paes won 7-5.
The eight seeds then took control of the match getting a vital break to got ahead 4-3. They then wrapped up the match, breaking their opponents again, to win the set 6-3.
Earlier, in their first match together since April 2002, Bhupathi and Paes had defeated Gaston Etlis and Martin Rodriques of Argentina 6-3, 6-2 in the second round.
The former world No.1 doubles pair had taken the tennis world by storm in 1997, winning their first major title together on the ATP tour at the 1997 Gold Flake Open.
They won 12 titles thereafter leading up to a sensational 1999, which saw them become the first pair since 1952 to reach all four Grand Slam finals and win the Wimbledon and French Open.