Miami: Indian ace Leander Paes and his partner Lukas Dlouhy breezed past Spaniards Nicolas Almagro
and Tommy Robredo to storm into the Sony Ericsson Open doubles
final here.
Paes and Dlouhy, winners of French Open and US Open last
year, needed just 42 minutes to score a 6-3, 6-0 victory over
the Spaniards, dropping just nine points in the second set.
Meanwhile, fourth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi
came through a close battle with French duo Arnaud Clement and
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-4 in one hour and 38
minutes to reach the semifinals, where they play Mariusz
Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski.
If Bhupathi and Mirnyi win their semifinal match, they
will meet Paes and Dlouhy in the final.
The Indo-Belarusian duo, which reunited at the beginning
of 2010, is through to its first semifinal since featuring in
the final four of the 2004 BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.
The 2002 US Open champions are bidding for their seventh
title together and their fifth ATP World Tour Masters 1000
trophy. Their most recent triumph together came at the 2004
Internazionali BNL d`Italia in Rome.
The 35-year-old Bhupathi is aiming to reach the Miami
final for the second time in three years after finishing
runner-up with Mark Knowles in 2008.
The 32-year-old Mirnyi is defending champion in Miami
after lifting the trophy last year with Andy Ram and is
chasing his fifth title.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, April 3, 2010, 00:44
