Leander Paes and his Spanish partner Tommy Robredo notched up a straight set victory over Ivan Ljubicic and R Soderling to storm into the doubles semifinals of the euro 2,270,000 Hamburg ATP Master Series event Hamburg on Friday.The unseeded Indo-Spanish pair won 6-2 7-6 (3) after one hour and 12 minute quarterfinal contest to set up a semifinal clash with second seeded duo of Canadian D Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia who downed fifth seeded combine of S Aspelin (Sweden) and James Knowles (Austria) 6-2 5-7 10-8.Leander and Robredo began the tie with a flourish and, with better serve and smashing returns, took the first set 6-2 in no time before allowing their Croat-Swedish opponents to make a match of them in the second set.Ljubicic and Soderling sent down five aces to their opponents’ none in the second set and hung on tenaciously by saving five break points on their serves only to wither away in the tie breaker.Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner Mark Knowles of Bahamas had crashed out of the tournament in the pre-quarterfinals.
