Indian ace Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy advanced to the doubles semifinals while it was curtains for compatriots Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna in the Dubai Tennis Championships here on Thursday. The second seeded pair of Paes and Dlouhy beat Arnaud Clement of France and Robert Lindstedt of Sweden 7-6(3),6-1 in the quarterfinals on Thursday to set up a clash with Christopher Kas of Germany and Belgian Dick Norman. Christopher and Dick stunned fourth seeds Frantisek Cerman of Czech Republic and Slovak Michal Mertinak 6-4,6-2 in another quarterfinals. However,it was end of roads for Bhupathi as he and his Belarus partner Max Mirnyi were defeated 4-6,4-6 by Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Australian Paul Hanley in the last eight match on Wednesday. Wildcards Rohan Bopanna of India and his Pakistani partner Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi became a first round casualty after going down 7-5,6-7(5),8-10 in the first round against Clement and Lindstedt on Wednesday. Another Indian in the fray,Somdev Devvarman also lost his second round singles match against Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 3-6 6-3 1-6 on Wednesday.
