Miami: 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 Fernando Verdasco in straight sets 7-6 (6), 6-4 to enter the semi-finals here on Wednesday.
Paes and Stepanek played superior tennis, committing only 11 unforced errors and hitting 21 winners, including a fine forehand smash by Paes to finish the match. The duo have won all six sets so far in the tournament and are now 12-2 as a team in 2012.
They'll meet the top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States in the semi-final.
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.
A week prior to that match, the Bryans needed two tiebreakers to overcome Paes and Stepanek 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7) in the quarter-final at Sydney.
Paes' compatriots Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, seeded sixth here, are already through to the semi-finals, outlasting No. 3 seeds Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia 2-6, 6-3, 10-8 on Wednesday.
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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