Bhupathi-Knowles in Australian Open semis

Mahesh Bhupathi and his Bahamian partner Mark Knowles stormed into the Australian Open doubles semi-finals, defeating Feliciano Lopez and F ernando Verdasco at the Melbourne Park early today morning.

The third seeded pair took 88 minutes to dispatch the Spanish duo 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 in their quarter-final encounter.

Lopez-Verdasco showed some resistance in the second set, winning it 6-2, but Bhupathi-Knowles eventually prevailed to move to the next level.

Among the juniors, top seed Yuki Bhambri moved to the third round after defeating Stephen Hoh of Australia 7-6(1), 6-0.

Earlier, Leander Paes, and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy advanced to the men's doubles quarter-finals defeating locals Paul Hanley and Jordan Kerr 6-2, 7-5 yesterday.