Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi kept Indian hopes alive in the Ordina Open by advancing to the doubles semi-finals, even as Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna bowed out of the singles in the US $175,000 tournament in s'Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.
The second seeded Indian pair produced glimpses of their old magic as they sailed past Spaniards David Ferrer and Marcel Granollers 6-2, 6-1 in 48 minutes to advance to the last four.
Paes and Bhupathi made a successful return to the tour on Tuesday, advancing to the second round with a straight sets win over Yves Allegro and Sebastian Prieto. It was their first match together on the tour since the Bangkok Open in September, 2004, though they did team up for the Davis Cup.
They take on the winners of the match between Argentines Guillermo Canas and Juan-Martin Del Porto and Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Florent Serra.
Sania and Bopanna, however, went down tamely.
While Sania lost 2-6, 2-6 loss to Dutchwoman Michaella Krajicek, Bopanna was beaten 2-6, 4-6 by Argentine Guillermo Canas.
The defeat means that Sania remains winless against Krajicek at 0-4. The loss also marks a disappointing end to the Hyderabadi girl's build-up for next week's championships at Wimbledon.
In the lopsided match, Sania struggled to find her feet and dropped serve twice before Krajicek raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set that lasted barely half an hour.
The Indian could not recover from the opening setback and was thoroughly outplayed in the second set as well with Krajicek hardly breaking a sweat and finishing it off in another 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, qualifier Bopanna cut a sorry figure in his match against Canas, also a qualifier but who has to his credit a win over world number one Roger Federer last year.
The one-sided encounter lasted little over an hour.
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