Bhupathi/Knowles upset Bryan brothers

Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas upset top seeds Bryan Brothers to enter the semifinals of the Australian Open men's doubles competition in Melbourne on Wednesday.

The sixth-seeded combination beat the American twins, Bob and Mike, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7/5) to make it to the last four, where they will face the eighth-seeded Israeli duo of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram.

Erlich and Ram defeated Frenchmen Marc Gicquel and Fabrice Santoro 6-4, 6-1 in their quarter-final clash.

The other semi-final will pit the seventh-seeded French pair of Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra against unseeded South Africans Jeff Coetzee and Wesley Moodie.

Also read: Venus ousted 

Bhupathi and Knowles needed two hours and 24 minutes to overcome the top seeds. They could have won in less time as they had vital leads in all three sets before the Bryans came back strongly. The third set itself was 56 minutes long.

The sixth seeds did not commit a single unforced error in the match and capitalised on three of the six break points they got.

They won 73 per cent of the points on their first serve and won a total of 112 points compared to 107 by the Bryans.

Bhupathi is also in the mixed doubles draw partnering Sania Mirza and will take on the eighth seeds Nathalie Dechy of France and Andy Ram in the semi-final.

Also read: Federer in last four

There was more good news for India as eighth seed Yuki Bhambri entered the boys' singles quarterfinals beating Tadayuki Longhi of Japan 6-1, 6-3 in just under an hour.

The Indian served well, winning 77 per cent of points on his first delivery and 70 per cent on the second.

Bhambri now faces third seed Daniel Evans of Britain for a place in the semifinals.