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Paes-Damm enter Miami finals

March 29, 2007 23:52 IST

Leander Paes [ Images ] and Martin Damm [ Images ] converted their third match point to enter into their second successive Masters series final, at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami [ Images ] on Thursday.

The sixth seeds were stretched into the match tie-break by the French pair of Michael Lldora and Arnaud Clement [ Images ] before clinching the semi-final 6-4, 3-6, 12-10 in an hour and 33 minutes.

Paes-Damm will play the winner of the match between fifth seeds Fabrice Santoro [ Images ]/Nenad Zimonjic and second seeds Mike and Bob Bryan for the title.

The Indo-Czech duo made a rousing comeback in the first set, winning it 6-4 after being 1-4 down.

In the second also they saved two set points but the Frenchmen converted the third on serve to bring the match level.

In the match tie-break, the Paes and Damm did the basics right -- like getting all their first serves in. After trading two points each, they went up for a 9-7 lead but their opponents saved both the match points.

The US Open [ Images ] champions finally got the mini-break on the 22nd point, to take the tie-break 12-10.

Winners at Indian Wells two weeks ago, Paes-Damm had ousted top seeds Jonas Bjorkman [ Images ] and Max Mirnyi [ Images ] in the quarter-finals.