Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of Bahamas advanced to their 10th ATP World Tour doubles final, beating defending champions Daniel Nestor of Canada and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic in a keenly-contested semi-final match of the $3 million Rogers Cup in Montreal.
The third seeded Indo-Bahamian pair had to play out of their skin to beat second seeds Nestor and Zimonjic 5-7, 6-2, 10-4 in a match tie-break late last night.
Bhupathi and Knowles will take on seventh-seeded Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Israeli Andy Ram in the final of the hard-court tournament.
Mirnyi and Ram upset top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan of the US 7-6(5), 6-2 in another last four match.
There was nothing much to differentiate between the Bhupathi-Knowles pair and their opponents, except for the fact that the Indo-Bahamian duo won 72 per cent of their service points, including seven aces, to register their 26th win in as many as 40 matches on the World Tour this year.
The key to Bhupathi-Knowles duo's victory was that their opponents could land only 53 percent of their first serves in.
{{/usCountry}}The key to Bhupathi-Knowles duo's victory was that their opponents could land only 53 percent of their first serves in.
{{/usCountry}}