Bhupathi-Knowles enter Madrid Masters semis

Madrid:

Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles defeated erring Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle 6-3 7-5 to storm into the semifinals of the $2,270,000 Madrid Masters.

The fourth seeded Indo-Bahamian pair took one hour and 15 minutes to beat the sixth seeded Swede-Austrian duo in the quarterfinals of the hard court event.

Bhupathi and Knowles converted one of the three chances apart from saving all three breakpoints they faced to race away with the first set.

In the second set also Bhupathi and Knowles saved two breakpoints and broke their rivals once to ensure a berth in the last-four stage.

They next face fifth seeded pair of Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe, who stunned top seeded Mike and Bob Byran 6-4 6-4 in their quarterfinal match.

Bhupathi's estranged partner Leander Paes and Luaks Dlouhy had made a shock exit after losing to wild card pair of Pablo Andujar and Marcel Granollers on Friday.