Tournament’s fourth seed pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles regained their golden touch after surviving some anxious moments, saving three match points in the deciding tie-break, to pull of an exciting three-set win over Martin Damm and Pavel Vizner in the semifinals of the $ 3,77,0000 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
The Indo-Bahamas pair battled their way hard to overcome the challenge of their sixth seeded Czech rivals 7-6(5) 4-6 11-9 and setting up the title clash against top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan. With this win the duo registered their fourth consecutive match tie-break victory in the tournament thus far.
Bhupathi and Knowles saved three match points in the tie-break after trailing 6-9 in the decider. They claimed straight five points to clinch the one hour and 50 minute hard-fought battle.
Bryan brothers of US, defending champions and tournament’s top seeds, stormed into their third successive Miami final with a 6-1 6-4 win over unseeded South African pair of Jeff Coetzee and Wesley Moodie.
The intimidating semifinal contest played between both teams got off to a challenging start as both the pairs exchanged breaks in the first set before Bhupathi and Knowles settled it 7-6 in their favour in the tie-break.
But the Czech duo of Damm and Vizner weren’t ready to give up so easily as they came back strongly and led the second set 4-2 after breaking serves of Indo-Bahamas pair before losing out serve in the ninth game when Damm was broken. But the strong willed pair of Czech Republic broke back to draw the level.
In a variable match tie-break, Bhupathi and Knowles led 4-3 before further going down 6-9 but Damm and Vizner had to blame themselves for their defeat as they messed up their chances by losing two crucial match points on their own serve.
The resolute pair of Bhupathi and Knowles held their nerves and serves in the next two before sealing the victory in the 20th game and match point of the deciding tie-break.
Bhupathi and Knowles will play in the Miami final to win their third title of the season, after winning back-to-back titles in Memphis and Dubai without dropping a set. On the other hand, the Bryan brother’s duo will be in quest of their first title of the 2008 season after their runner-up finishes at Sydney, San Jose, Las Vegas and Delray Beach.
Bhupathi and Knowles had won 14 matches out of their last 15 outings before their 10-match winning streak came to halt after losing out to eventual champions Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram at the Indian Wells quarterfinals.
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