Leander Paes and Martin Damm staged a magnificent recovery to enter the men's doubles final at the US Open on Friday.
The sixth seeds fought back after losing the first set to beat fourth seeds Paul Hanley of Australia and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe 6-7 (1), 7-6 (7), 7-5 in a nail-biting semi-final.
Paes and Damm, who had in the quarter-finals beaten Leos Friedl of the Czech Republic and Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, the conquerors of top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan in the third round, will take on second seeds Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden-Max Mirnyi of Belarus in the final.
Bjorkman and Mirnyi had an easy time while beating Australia's Ashley Fisher and Tripp Phillips of the United States 6-1, 6-4 in the other semi-final.
Paes and Damm started off tentatively, making as many as seven unforced errors compared to their opponents' three, which proved decisive in the first set. They could hold serve just once serve in the tie-break as the set slipped away in 50 minutes.
The second set, however, saw the Indo-Czech pair get their act together. Their strategy to attack the net more unsettled Hanley and Ullyett, forcing them into unforced errors. But the higher-ranked opponents pair refused to yield and the set again went into the tie-breaker.
Paes-Damm were three points down and staring defeat but they kept their cool to win the shoot-out 9-7.
The Indo-Czech pair were again in trouble in the decider, when Paes was broken in the fifth game. Hanley then held to give the Australia-Zimbabwe combination a 4-2 lead. Damm served out his game to cut the lead to 3-4 before Ullyett held to make it 5-3.
A game away from defeat, Paes then held serve in the ninth (4-5) to set up a do-or-die tenth game, which saw Paes and Damm throw caution to the wind. They attacked Hanley's serve and did well to return the break and level scores 5-5.
After Damm then held, a break on Ullyett's serve in the 12th game give Paes and Damm the set and match in two hours and 40 minutes.
Paes, who will make his sixth Grand Slam final appearance in doubles and ninth overall -- counting the three in mixed doubles -- will be playing for his fourth Grand Slam men's doubles title and seventh overall.
He lost the doubles final at the US Open in 1999 pairing with Mahesh Bhupathi. He already has three Grand Slam men's doubles titles, two French Open (1999 and 2001) and one Wimbledon (1999) -- all pairing with Bhupathi. He lost two Australian Open finals, teaming with Bhupathi (1999) and Martin Damm (2006).
He has three mixed doubles titles -- two at Wimbledon, pairing with Martina Navaratilova (2003) and Lisa Raymond of the United States (1999), and one at the Australian Open, pairing with Martina Navaratilova (2003).
More from rediff