Bhupathi-Ancic pair reaches semis in China Open

Beijing, Sep 14 (UNI) Mahesh Bhupathi and his teammate Mario Ancic of Croatia showed immense character to upstage third seeded American pair of Eric Butorac and Travis Parrot in a three-set thriller to move into the semifinals of the 475,000 dollar China Open here.

In the edge-of-the-seat quarterfinal match, Bhupathi and Ancic waged a grim battle before beating the Butorac-Parrott duo 7-6 (5), 3-6, 10-6.

In the semifinals, they meet unseeded Kristian Pless (Denmark) and Danai Udomchoke (Thailand).

The first set gave enough inklings that it's going to be a hard-fought affair with both the pairs refusing to concede an inch without fight. Bhupathi and Ancic, however, handled the pressure well and clinched the tie-breaker to go one up.

The seeded Americans, however, turned the table in the next set and Bhupathi and Ancic could hardly do anything as their rivals walked away with the set to draw parity.

And once the decider started, both the pairs realised it was their last chance and matches each other shot by shot.

Towards the end, Butorac and Parrott ran out of steam and looked jaded and Bhupathi and Ancic grabbed the opportunity with both hands to seal the match.

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