Sania, Bhupathi enter doubles' semis

Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi storm into the semifinals of their respective events at the Pilot Pen tennis classic.

Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi continued their fine doubles form as they stormed into the semifinals of their respective events with straight set victories at the Pilot Pen Classic in New Haven.

While the top seeded pair of Bhupathi and his Czech partner Nenad Zimonjic beat Spaniards David Ferrer and Albert Montanes 7-6 (3) 7-6 (3), third seeds Sania and Italian Mara Santangelo defeated wildcards Janette Husorova (Slovakia) and Patty Schnyder (Switzerland) 6-3, 7-5 in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Bhupathi and Zimonjic will next play the US-Australian duo of Eric Butorac and Ashley Fisher, who beat the Czech pair of Frantisek Cermak and Leos Friedel 6-2 6-4 in the other quarterfinal.

Sania and Santangelo, meanwhile, have a tough match on hand as they square off against the second seeded Czech-Australian pair of Kveta Peschke and Rennae Stubbs in the last-four stage.

Stubbs and Peschke survived a scare from Belarussian Victoria Azarenka and Russian Maria Kirilenko before coming through 3-6 7-5 10-2 in the quarterfinal.

Sania is already out of the singles competition, having lost her second-round match to Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko.