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Leander, Mahesh through to semi-finals

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will meet Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Russia) and Daniel Vaceck (Czech Republic) in the doubles semi-finals of the US Open championships.

The Indians, tenth-seeded in the tournament, defeated David Adams (Australia) and Wayne Ferreira (South Africa), 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday night.

Bhupathi and Paes, who are ranked eighth in the world, entered the quarter-finals beating Guillaume Raoux (France) and Jeff Tarrango (US), 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 in the third round on Monday.

This is the second time Paes has entered the US Open doubles semifinals -- in 1993 he did so, partnering Sebastien Lareau.

The other semi-final will be fought between Wayne Black (Zimbabwe) and Jim Grabb (US) -- who defeated Goran Ivanisevic (Croatia) and Cyril Suk (Czech Republic), 7-6 (11-9), 6-3 -- and Jonas Bjorkman and Nicklaus Kulti (Sweden) who defeated Jiri Novak and David Rikl (Czech Republic), 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-4.

Fourth seeds Kafelnikov and Vaceck beat John-Laffnie de Jager and Robbie Koenig (South Africa), 7-5, 7-5.

Both Leander and Mahesh failed to make it past the first round in the US Open mixed doubles event. Dragomir (Romania) and Paes lost to Guse and Macpherson (Australia), 4-6, 6-2, 6-7 (4-7) while Hiraki (Japan) and Bhupathi, the 8th seeds and winners of the French Open title, lost to Adams (USA) and Florent (Australia), 4-6, 6-2, 2-6

EXTERNAL LINK: Leander Paes interview