Mumbai: The Croatian-Indian duo of Mario Ancic and Mahesh Bhupathi subdued the Indo-Pak duo of Leander Paes and Aisam Qureshi in three sets to enter the final of the doubles competition in the $380,000 Kingfisher Open in Mumbai on Saturday.
Ancic and Bhupathi won the one hour 40 minutes quarter-final clash 6-1, 5-7, 10-3 but booked a berth in the final as their next round opponents Denis Gremelmayr and Simon Gruel of Germany have already pulled out of the event because of a hip injury sustained by the former.
Ancic and Bhupathi, who last week won the Beijing Open title, looked well in control of the match except for the second set which produced all the drama that the large crowd was looking out for at the Cricket Club of India courts.
The first set was a total wash-out for Paes and his makeshift partner Qureshi who won only one game and failed to hold serve even once and lost it in 31 minutes.
The second set was the best of the match and lasted an hour with both pairs showing good understanding and athleticism.
The first break came in the seventh when Bhupathi dropped his serve but when serving for the set at 5-4 Qureshi was broken after holding two set points.
However, Bhupathi's serve was again attacked by Paes and his partner which resulted in the most decisive break of the set in the very next game (11th) before Paes served out the set.
The final set, a super tie breaker, was easily won by Ancic, whose serve made all the difference to the contest as his delivery was hardly threatened, and Bhupathi who took a runaway 8-1 lead before winning the match 10-3.
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