Bhupathi, Tarango in semis

Mahesh Bhupathi and Jeff Tarango entered the semi-final in the Doubles at the $357,000 Heineken Open being played in in Auckland, New Zealand.

The Indo-American pair, seeded second in the tournament, were 5-5 against the fourth seed Martin Garcia of Argentina and Cyril Suk of the Czech Republic, when the semi-final match was suspended due to rain on Friday. The match will resume on Saturday.

In the first semi-final, top seeds Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Todd Woodbridge of Australia defeated the third seeds Rick Leach of the United States and Ellis Ferreira of South Africa 7-5, 6-3.

Earlier, Bhupathi/Tarango defeated the Czech pair of Petr Luxa and Jiri Novak 6-4, 6-0 in the quarter-final after getting past wildcards Alistair Hunt and Daniel Willman of New Zealand 6-4, 6-4 in the first round.

Mahesh is partnering Tarango as his regular partner Leander Paes will play at the singles qualifiers for the Australia Open this week.