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Paes-Bhupathi in last four

Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes -- 'Indian Express', to you and me -- have made the last four stage of the US Open.

In the quarters, they eased past the unseeded pair of Luis Lobo and Javier Sanchez, taking it in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.

For the two friends, this makes their fourth semifinal appearance in the last five Grand Slams. The win gives them a total of 363 points and, more importantly, they have now successfully defended their points from last year, so everything over and above this is a bonus. And in terms of prize money, they share $80,000 for reaching the last four stage.

Later tonight, the Indian pair will take on 15th seeds Sandon Stolle and Cyril Suk, who for their part defeated the 7th seeded pair of Martin Damm and Jim Grabb 7-6(7-4), 6-7(5-7), 7-5.

The others to make the semifinals were 6th seeds Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor, who defeated the 3rd seeded pair of Jonas Bjorkman and Patrick Rafter 5-7, 6-2, 6-4; and John De Jager and Robbie Koenig, who defeated the 16th seeded team of Neil Broad/Piet Norval 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.

In a tournament that has seen the high-seeded teams collapse, this leaves Bhupathi and Paes, at number four, as the only pair to justify their seeding.

For the Indians, a win in the semifinals will be worth 599 points, including 24 more bonus points, and a further $80,000 in their kitty.

To earn those goodies, though, they have to take the Stolle/Suk combine, and that is no easy task. The other day, Mark Woodforde was commenting about how well Suk served, in course of their upset win over the Woodies. Stolle, too, is on a roll, having reached the semifinals of both the doubles and mixed doubles in the ongoing US Open. Stolle, teamed with Debbie Graham, will take on the Serena Williams/Max Miryni combo ion the mixed event later tonight.

The last time Leander and Mahesh played Stolle/Suk was at the Italian Open in Rome, and the Indians had an easy time of it then.

Bad news, though, on the mixed doubles front as Bhupathi and Mirjana Lucic lost their quarterfinals to the Serena Williams/Max Mirnyi combine. When play was stopped the previous day, the teams were deadlocked at a set apiece.

On resumption, Mahesh/Mirjana were up a break in the 3rd game of the 3rd set, only to give it back in the 4th. Then they went up again in the 9th game and were serving for the match at 5-4. But at that point, something snapped, and both Mahesh and Mirjana where broken in successive games, to lose the tie 6-3, 5-7, 5-7. For the Indian ace and the rising Croat teen, it was a defeat that reprised the pattern of an earlier loss, in the Wimbledon mixed doubles finals, this year.

Indian junior Vijay Kannan meanwhile lost to K.J. Hippensteel of USA in the second round of the boy's singles event 6-4, 3-6, 2-6.

Manoj Mahadevan also lost his first round match to Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-4, 6-4.

With this, the Indian challenge in the juniors event at this year's US Open has ended.