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Bhupathi-Knowles, Paes-Dlouhy in US Open semis

September 09, 2009 01:45 IST

Third seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles entered the semi-finals of the men's doubles at the US Open after beating Ivan Ljubicic from Croatia and Michael Llodra from France in the quarter-finals of the tournament.

Bhupathi and Knowles beat Ljubicic and Llodra 6-4, 4-6, 7-6.

Earlier, Fourth seeds Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy entered the semi-finals, beating seventh seeds Wesley Moodie of South Africa and Dick Norman of Belgium 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 on Tuesday.

The India-Czech Republic duo will take on the Bryan brothers, Bob and Mike, who beat Australia's Carsten Ball and Chris Guccione 6-4, 7-6 (7-2), in the next round.

After winning the first set rather easily, Paes-Dlouhy took a 2-0 lead in the second, but were broken in the fourth and 12th games as Moodie and Norman took the tie to the decider.

Paes and Dlouhy broke immediately in the third set and raced away to a 4-1 lead after breaking again in the fifth game.

However, serving for the set, they were broken in the eighth game. But after the South Africa-Belgium pair held in the ninth, Paes ensured there were no further hiccups by serving out the next game for set and match.