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Bhupathi, Paes in Challenger semis

Top-seeded Leander Paes and unseeded Mahesh Bhupathi today cruised into the semifinals of the $25,000 Servo-Indian Oil ATP Challenger tennis tournament by registering contrasting wins over Jeff Coetzee (RSA) and Vladmir Voltchkov (Belaruss) respectively.

Paes prevailed over Coetzee 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in a one hour 44 minutes encounter, while Bhupathi caused an upset overwhelming second-seeded Voltchkov 6-3, 6-3.

Paes now meets Gregory Carraz of France in the last four stage while Bhupathi clashes with third-seeded Etlis Gaston of Argentina.

Carraz today upset sixth-seeded Oleg Ogorodov of Uzbekistan, coming up after a one set loss to win 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 while Eltis moved past Andreas Vinciguerra of Sweden 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Paes totally dominated Coetzee in the first set, hitting good volleys and placing the ball well. He went on to break Coetzee in the third game, retaining his own serve in the set. Coetzee came close to breaking the Indian number one in the eighth game when he had a break point, but fumbled at the last moment, hitting the ball out.

But Coetzee picked up his rhythm in the second set, hitting the ball well and giving good service returns. Both the players retained their serve, and Paes seemed to be frustrated as he was unable to break Coetzee, who is ranked 233 in the world.

Paes later admitted, ''I started well, but he came strongly in the second set. I expected him to slow down after losing the first set, but he played smartly, hitting good shots.''