Paes-Stepanek enter Miami semis

In the first doubles match played on the stadium court in this year's Sony Ericsson Open, seventh-seeded Leander Paes of India and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek defeated Spaniards David Marrero and Fernandou00a0Verdasco in straight sets, 7-6 (6), 6-4, to enter the semi-finals here Wednesday.

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Paes and Stepanek played superior tennis, committing 11 unforced errors and hitting 21 winners, including a fine forehand smash by Paes to finish the match.

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Paes and Stepanek have partnered to win all six sets thus far in the tournament and are now 12-2 as a team in 2012.u00a0

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They'll meet the top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States in the semifinal.u00a0

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The Bryan brothers have also won all six sets so far. However, Paes and Stepanek were able to beat them 7-6 (1), 6-2, in the doubles final of the Australian Open in January.u00a0

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A week prior to that match, the Bryans needed two tiebreaks to overcome Paes and Stepanek 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7) in a quarterfinal at Sydney.

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Paes' compatriots Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, seeded sixth here, are already through to the semifinals, outlasting No. 3 seeds Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia, 2-6, 6-3, 10-8, Wednesday.u00a0

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The Indians will next take on the winner of the other quarter-final between the Polish-Serbian duo of Lukasz Kubot-Janko Tipsarevic and Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Daniel Nestor of Canada.

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The Indian combo, who had recently won the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, saved as many as four breakpoints out of six against the French-Serbian pair.

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