HARTFORD (Connecticut), NOV 20: Top-seeded Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi lost to the pair of Wayne Black of Zimbabwe and Sandon Stolle of Australia, who clinched a semi-final berth at the ATP Tour World Doubles Championship. Paes and Bhupathi, however, have qualified to play the semis and are poised to meet the Australian pair of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde later today.In their encounter last evening, the sixth-seeded Black and Stolle not only surprised the Indians 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 6-2 to reach the semis, but won the Gold Group as well. Although the losers and Black-Stolle team each finished 2-1 in the round robin, the latter won the group due to their victory yesterday.Black and Stolle will today meet in the semis Sebastien Lareau of Canada and American Alex O'Brien, who won a do-or-die match over seventh seeds Paul Haarhuis and Jared Palmer. By defeating their Dutch-American opponents 7-6 (7-1) 6-2, the fourth-seeded team sealed second place in the Green Group and a semifinal spot.The othersemifinal will pit the top two seeded teams as Paes and Bhupathi will square off against the second seed Australian Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge. The `Woodies' warmed up for their semi-final encounter with the Indians by dumping the Czech pair of Jiri Novak and David Rikl 6-2 6-4.Seeking their third World Championship, the `Woodies' finished undefeated in three round-robin matches, but may not be at 100 per cent for Saturday as Woodbridge suffered a sprained right ankle on match point yesterday.
