New Delhi: The Indo-Czech duo of Leander Paes and Martin Damm beat the Australian-Zimbabean pair of Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett 6-7 (1), 7-6 (7), 7-5 in the men's doubles semi-finals.
Although Paes and Damm had lesser number of winning points, they converted two of their five breakpoints that came their way while Hanley and Ullyett could convert only one of the five they had.
There were 16 unforced errors by Paes and Damm and 18 by Hanley and Ullyett, besides seven doubles faults by each of them.
They have reached the final of a Grand Slam event for the second time this season. At this year's Australian Open final event they advanced to the final before losing to Bob and Mike Bryan.
Paes, a former World No 1 player in doubles, has two Grand Slam titles under his belt (Roland Garros 2001 and Wimbledon 2000 w/ Bhupathi), while Damm is chasing his first major crown.
The duo's lone title in 2006 came in 's-Hertogenbosch. They also reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon, ATP Masters Series Canada and Cincinnati and Dubai.
Paes-Damm will meet second seeded Swedish-Belarus pair of Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi in the final.
Bjorkman and Mirnyi won 6-1, 6-4 win over the Australian-American pair of Ashley Fisher and Tripp Phillips in the first semi-final.
They are looking to claim their fifth title in the season as a duo. In 2006 they captured the Roland Garros crown in defeating World No 1 Bob and Mike Bryan in the final.
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