Leander Paes [Images], pairing with Nenad Zimjonjic, seemed to be heading for a showdown in the final with erstwhile partner Mahesh Bhupathi [Images] after the Indo-Swedish pair entered the doubles semifinals of the Chennai Open 2005 in Chennai on Thrusday night.

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Second seeded Paes and Zimonjic were lucky to win in straight sets on the third match point in the second set tie-break against Karsten Braasch (Germany [Images]) and Robert Lindstedt (Sweden) with a scoreline of 6-2, 7-6 (7).

The win kept alive hopes of Paes to win his fifth doubles title in this only ATP Masters series tournament, which is in its ninth year.

In the semifinal, Paes-Zimonjic pair meets Yet-Hsun Lu (TPE) and Rainer Schuettler (GER), who defeated Ashley Fisher (AUS) and Tripp Phillips (USA) 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 in the other quarterfinal.

Top seeded pair of Bhupathi and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden are to clash with Kevin Kim(USA) and Jiri Vanek (CZE) in the semifinal on Friday.

Paes, who had on the eve of the match said a final against Bhupathi would be ideal, was serving for the match at 6-5 in the tie-break when Zimonjic failed to return a lob with Paes, on his left, also trying to reach the ball.

One felt that Paes would have wrapped up the match on that point had he been in the company of Bhupathi as the two used to have the best coordination.

Paes/Zimonjic did not encounter much problem in taking the first, as they combined well and attacked the rival pair from the net often.

But in the second set, they played into the hands of the bespectacled Braasch just like the Amritraj cousins Prakash and Stephen did yesterday. After the rivals traded breaks in the 11th and 12th games, the set meandered into a tie-break.

In fact,Braasch gave enough problems to Paes and Zimonjic, adopting better tactics in contrast to the first set, when the second seeds dominated the proceedings.

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