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Paes-Bhupati in semis of French Open

Seeded third on the red clay of Roland Garros, the crack Indian doubles pairing of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati cruised into the semifinals of the French Open with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Julian Alonso of Spain and Nicolas Lapentti of Eucador.

The Indian duo, which sailed smoothly through the first two rounds, had earlier beaten Swedish duo Fredrik Bergh and Peter Nyborg 6-4, 7-6 (9-7).

Any further progress in the tournament almost certainly guarantees the Indian duo an advance in the world rankings -- and one more step closer to their stated objective of toppling the famed Woodies off the top of the totem pole.

The Indian duo will face the winners of the other quarterfinal match between 10th seeded pair Patrick Galbraith of the USA and Brett Steven of New Zealand versus Mark Knowles of Bahamas and Daniel Nestor of Canada.

With the Woodies already out of the tournament, the Indians have just one hurdle to cross, namely the top seeded Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis, before laying hands on their first Grand Slam trophy.

In mixed doubles, however, the top seeded pair of Leander Paes and Larisa Neiland of Latvia crashed out in the second round, against unseeded Serena Williams of the USA and Luis Lobo of Argentina 6-7(4-7), 3-6.

The top seeded pair had a bye in the first round.

Last year's champion Mahesh Bhupathi of India, pairing this time with Rennae Stubbs of Australia and seeded third this time, also lost their second round match against unseeded French pair of Anne-Gaelle Sidot and Sebastian Grosjean 4-6, 4-6.