Miami, Apr 3: Tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi and his Bahamian partner Mark Knowles defeated Leander Paes and Paul Hanley in a contest to reach the men's doubles semi-finals of 3,77,0000 dollars ATP WTA Sony Ericsson Open, here.

In the quater-final yesterday, the fourth-seeded Indo-Bahamian duo pipped the eight-seeded Paes and Hanley of Australia 6-2, 6-7 (8), 10-6 to move a step closer to the title. Bhupathi and Knowles saved three break point opportunities in winning the first set in 28 minutes. But the Memphis and Dubai champions found it difficult to repeat in the second set. Unable to convert any of the seven break point opportunities they created, the pair was edged out in a tense tie-break but won six of eight points on serve to snatch the match tie-break for their 18th win of the year.

The pair, currently No. 2 in the Stanford ATP Doubles Race, made their team debut at Sydney in January.
Bhupathi and Knowles next play sixth-seeded Czechs Martin Damm and Pavel Vizner, who outbattled the French team of Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 4-6, 6-4, 14-12.


UNI