New York: Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi
inched closer to a showdown in the men's doubles final after
both made the semis with their respective partners, while Yuki
Bhambri advanced to boys' singles third round on a good day
for the Indians in the US Open here.
Fourth seeded Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy
defeated seventh seeded South African-Belgian pair of Wesley
Moodie and Dick Norman 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
The Indo-Czech pair has set up a tough clash against top
seeds Bob and Mike Bryan of United States in the semifinals.
Third seeds Bhupathi and Bahamian Mark Knowles got the
better of the Croat-French team of Ian Ljubicic and Michael
Llodra 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4).
They will be up against the fifth seeded
Belarussian-Israeli duo of Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram in the
last-four stage.
Paes had more reason to celebrate as he also inched
closer to the mixed doubles title with Zimbabwean Cara Black.
The second seeds made the finals of the event with a 6-2,
3-6, 10-5 triumph over fifth seeds Su-Wei Hseih of Chinese
Taipei and Kevin Ullyet of Zimbabwe.
The Indo-Zimbabwean pair will now take on unseeded
Americans Carly Gullickson and Travis Parrott.
It was a mixed day for teen sensation Yuki, who advanced
in singles but crashed out of doubles.
The top seeded Delhi-boy had no trouble brushing aside
Swiss Sandro Bhrat 6-0, 6-1 to make the third round in the
singles event.
He will now square off against American Jack Sock.
However, it was curtains for him in boys' doubles.
Yuki and his Taipei partner Liang-Chi Huang, seeded
number one, squandered a set's advantage to go down 6-3, 2-6,
6-10 to Americans Evan King and Denis Kudla.
Bureau Report1
First Published: Wednesday, September 09, 2009, 12:23