Sport - Tennis

Paes-Damm to meet Bryan brothers in title round

Bhupathi-Hingis, Paes-Dechy pair in mixed doubles semifinals

Melbourne: Seventh seeds Leander Paes and his partner Martin Damm moved into the men's doubles final at the Australian Open on Thursday.

The Indo-Czech pair ended the run of an unseeded duo of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland by scoring a 6-2, 6-4 win at the Margaret Court Arena.

Paes and Damm lived up to the higher seedings by playing a clinical game against the inexperienced opponents, and completely outperformed them in a 79-minute encounter.

Paes is making his second final appearance here, the first being in 1999 when he was seeded top along with compatriot partner Mahesh Bhupathi and the duo was upset by fifth seeds Patrick Rafter of Australia and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden.

The Indian will look for a similar upset, albeit in his favour this time, as he and Damm challenge top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan in the title clash.

The Americans stormed into the final with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Australian Paul Hanley and Zimbabwean Kevin Ullyett.

Easy for Paes-Dechy

Meanwhile, Leander Paes and his French team-mate Nathalie Dechy sailed into the semifinals of the mixed doubles event with a straight-set win over the Czech-German pair of Frantisek Cermak and Anna-Lena Groenefeld on Thursday.

The Indo-French pair took 77 minutes for a facile 6-1, 7-6(4) win, which pits it against sixth seeds Daniel Nestor (Canada) and Elena Likhovtseva (Russia) in the semifinal.

At the Vodafone Arena, Paes and Dechy seized early control of the match and looked in a hurry as they dropped just one game and broke their rivals twice to win it 6-1 in just 24 minutes.

They, however, faced a spirited resistance from their opponents who exchanged two break points and stretched it to the tiebreaker.

Paes-Dechy duo, however, proved superior in handling the crucial points and they stuck to the basics to clinch the set and the match.

Thrilling win

Also advancing was the Indo-Swiss pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Martina Hingis. Bhupathi and Hingis scored a thrilling 7-5, 7-6(5) victory over home pair Todd Perry and Rennae Stubbs. The duo will take on another local combination, Paul Hanley and Samantha Stosur, in the other semifinal.

Meanwhile, third-seeded Sanam Singh was upset by Austen Childs of New Zealand in a three-setter in the third round of the boys' singles.

Sanam, who began positively by bagging the first set, lost 6-4, 3-6, 3-6 to end the Indian challenge in the junior section of the competition. — Agencies

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