Miami: Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi entered the Sony Ericsson Open men's doubles final with a straight-set win, setting up an exciting clash with Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy here on Sunday.
Fourth seeds Bhupathi and Belarussian Mirnyi defeated eighth seeds Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 7-6 (4) 6-4 last night.
Bhupathi-Mirnyi broke their rivals twice in the one-hour, 20-minute encounter.
It's been a dramatic turnaround for the Indo-Belarussian duo which had a 1-4 record for 2010 coming into the tournament. They had reunited in January after a successful partnership between 2002 and 2004.
The 2002 US Open champions are bidding for their seventh title together and their fifth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophy.
Bhupathy-Mirnyi will take on number three seeds Paes, Bhupathi's former long-time doubles partner, and Czech Dlouhy who won their semifinal on Thursday over Spaniards Nicolas Almagro and Tommy Robredo.
It will be the first meeting between the two teams, with the champion duo set to share USD 198,400. The runners-up will split USD 96,820.
Both teams have lost only one set en route to the final.
Paes and Dlouhy are appearing in their third ATP World Tour final of the season after runner-up efforts in Brisbane and Dubai. They have a 3-6 lifetime record together in finals, winning Roland Garros and the US Open last year.
Bhupathi and Mirnyi are making their first ATP World Tour final showing of the season.
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