MELBOURNE, Jan 26 (PTI): Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are on course for their maiden Australian Open title together as they advanced to the semifinals after a hard-fought victory over the combine of Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia here today.
The third seeded Indian pair, who teamed up together after nine years in a bid to add the only Grand Slam title missing in their cupboard, needed 91 minutes to beat Llodra and Zimonjic 6-4 6-4 in a quarterfinal match at Melbourne Park.
Llodra and Zimonjic had beaten the 'Indo-Pak Express' pair of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi in the pre-quarterfinals.
Paes and Bhupathi kept their mistakes to the minimum while their eight seeded opponents committed 13 unforced errors. The Indian duo had just five unforced errors which made a difference in the tie.
