Sania Mirza, meanwhile, had a mixed day as she reached the semis of the mixed doubles event with Mahesh Bhupathi, but missed out on the other chance when she lost the women’s doubles semifinal along with Vesnina.
The unseeded Indo-Czech pair of Paes and Stepanek registered a straight-set victory over 10th seeded pair of Eric Butorac of USA and Brazil’s Bruno Soares 6-4, 7-6 in a battle that lasted an hour and 39 minutes.
Paes and Stepanek looked more comfortable than their fancied opponents in the opening set as they held their serve with ease and managed to convert the only break point they got.
The US-Brazilian duo of Butorac and Soares though came up with a better show in the second set, putting a lot of pressure on their opponents’ serve.
After both the pairs exchanged breaks, the set moved into a tie-breaker. Paes and Stepanek did well to take a 3-0 lead in the tie-breaker and then held their nerves to win it 7-4.
They will next take on second seeds Belarus’ Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor of Canada for a place in the final.
Paes, then, along with Vesnina downed unseeded Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Marcin Matkowski of Poland in straight sets 6-3, 7-5.
Meanwhile the sixth seeded Indian pair of Sania and Bhupathi got the better of Liezel Huber of USA and Colin Fleming of United Kingdom in straight sets 7-6 (7-5), 6-2. Sania and Bhupathi smashed 27 winners as compared to 18 by Huber and Fleming.
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