Bhupathi-Bopanna to take on Paes-Stepanek in final

Shanghai, Oct 13 (IANS): Seventh seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna reached their second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final of the season Saturday and set up a summit clash with Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.

The Indian duo beat the British pairing of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins 6-7(4), 6-3, 10-8. Both teams fired nine aces, but the Indian pairing faced no break points and were able to convert one of their six opportunities to claim victory in one hour and 36 minutes, the ATP website reported.

Fleming and Hutchins had defeated third seeds Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau and sixth seeds Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer to reach their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semifinal.

Bhupathi and Bopanna were runners-up at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati in August.

In the final, Bhupathi and Bopanna will face fourth seeds Paes and Stepanek, who converted six of their seven break points as they dismissed Marin Cilic and Marcelo Melo 6-0, 6-2 in 57 minutes.

Paes and Stepanek are through to their second final in a row, having finished runners-up last week at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo. The Indian/Czech duo won the Australian Open and Sony Open Tennis titles earlier in the season and also reached the US Open final last month. They have already secured their place at the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.