Paes, Bhupathi in semis

The ace Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi staged a grand rally to get the better of fifth seeds Donald Johnson and Jared Palmer of the United States to enter the doubles semi-finals in the Monte Carlo Masters Series on Friday.

After losing the first set tamely, they came back strongly to take the next two sets and prevail at 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 and set up a meeting with Jonas Bjorkman and Todd Woodbridge, who advanced to the semi-finals after beating D Adams of South Africa and Martin Garcia of Argentina 6-3, 6-4.

In another quarter-final, Jaime Oncins/Daniel Orsanic beat second seeds Piet Novak and David Rikl 6-2, 6-4. The will meet sixth seeds Joshua Eagle and Andrew Florent of Australia.

Johnson and Palmer simply rolled over the Indian pair in the first set. 22 minutes flat was all the time they needed as they broke the Indians in the second and sixth games.

Paes and Bhupathi served well and got about 65 per cent of their first serves in. However, the Americans, converted two of the three break chances they got.

In the second set, the Indians started badly again, falling 15-40 behind in the first game, but they fought off break attempts and held. They had a chance to break in the second game, but after three break points and deuce being called seven times the Americans held. Then it went with serve till 6-5. And just when the set looked like going into the tie-breaker, the Indian duo came up something special. They got four points in a row and converted the first break chance at 30-40, and proceded to take the set at 7-5.

The third set started with the Indians facing break points at 15-40 in the first game. They faced another break attempt in the third game too, but held on in both games. Games then went with serve with neither side having any break attempts till 6-5, when again the Indian pair came up with something extraordinary. They went up 30-0 before being taken to deuce and converted the second match point at advantage out to take the set and match in 2 hours and three minutes.

Statistically speaking, the Indians got 73 per cent of their first serves in compared to 71 per cent by the Americans. They served just one ace to none by their opponents and had only three doubles faults to eight. They converted two of seven break chances (2 of 3 at set points) while Johnson and Palmer converted two of seven break chances.

In Saturday's semi-final, they are up against the top seeded and No. 1 ranked team in the world. Bjorkman and Woodbridge have a 17-3 record in 20 matches they have played together in four events this year and have reached the final every time -- winning one title at the Australian Open, beating Byron Black and David Prinosil in the final.

This will be the first semi-final appearance at a Masters Series for the Indians since making it to the semi-final at Indian Wells in March 1999.

On Thursday, Paes and Bhupathi made it to the quarter-finals, defeating the French pair of Arnaud Clement and Sabastien Grosjean 7-5, 0-6, 6-2 in a second round match.

The match started with both the teams breaking each other twice to quickly settle down at 3-3. The Indians faced double break point at 3-4, but fought well to tie at 4-4. A timely break in the 11th game gave the Indians a 6-5 lead and Bhupathi served off the 12th game to take the set at 7-5.

The next set started with the Indians falling behind in the second game (0-2). The French pair converted pretty much every break chance they got causing the Indians to lose eight games in a row.

But the never says die Indians raised their game to turn the tables on their opponents winning six games in a row converting three of their last four break chances.

The Indians will face the 5th seeded American pair of Donald Johnson and Jared Palmer in the quarter-final match on Friday. The Americans reached the quarter-final with a second round walkover from the Dutch pair of Paul Haarhuis and Sjeng Schalken.