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Paes-Bhupathi lose but make semis

Top seeds Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi lost to the pair of Wayne Black of Zimbabwe and Sandon Stolle of Australia in their third match of the World Doubles Championships at Hartford yesterday.

The Indians, however, qualified for the semi-finals as did Black and Stolle, and will meet the Australian pair of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde later today.

In their encounter last evening, the sixth-seeded Black and Stolle not only surprised the Indians 6-7(5-7), 7-5, 6-2 to reach the semis, but won the Gold Group as well.

Although the losers and the Black-Stolle team each finished 2-1 in the round-robin, the latter won the group due to their victory yesterday.

Black and Stolle will today meet Sebastien Lareau of Canada and American Alex O'Brien, who won a do-or-die match over seventh seeds Paul Haarhuis and Jared Palmer, in the semi-finals.

By defeating their Dutch-American opponents 7-6(7-1) 6-2, the fourth-seeded team sealed second place in the Green Group and a semi-final spot.

The Woodies' warmed up for their semi-final encounter with the Indians by dumping the Czech pair of Jiri Novak and David Rikl 6-2, 6-4.

Novak and Rikl replaced fifth-seeded South Africans David Adams and John-Laffnie De Jager after De Jager could not compete due to flu.

Seeking their third World Championship, the Woodies finished undefeated in three round-robin matches, but may not be at 100 per cent for Saturday as Woodbridge suffered a sprained right ankle on match-point yesterday.

Eighth seeds Piet Norval of South Africa and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe won their first match in the Gold Group by surprising third seeds Ellis Ferreira and American Rick Leach, 6-3, 6-3.

Ferreira and Leach finished at 1-2 in the round robin and needed Black and Stolle to lose in straight sets to reach the semi-finals.

UNI