Paes/Bhupathi in Japan Open final

India's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi entered the final of the Japan Open tennis tournament on Saturday when they defeated the qualifer pair of Nicolas Massu of Chile and Andre Sa of Brazil 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

The Indians, who finished last year as the top team, have been struggling to get back the winning streak after they started playing together again this year at the Long Island ATP tournament, where they lost in the semi-finals.

They await the winner of the second semi-final between Wayne Arthurs of Australia / Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia and Michael Hill of Australia / Jeff Tarango of America. The final will be played on Sunday.

"We played another good match. They are not a typical doubles team, but they are very good baseliners, they both hit the ball very big from the baseline, and I think we did well with our volleys," said Paes.

He added. "Especially in the third set, we volleyed really well, we were like a wall at the net. That's the way we got better.

"I'm happy about reaching the final. I hope this is not the last one," said Paes.

"We've been having some troubles winning matches," said Bhupathi. "But this week, we had a lot of close matches, so I think we have a lot of confidence now.

"We are very happy, because it's the first final this year. We've played only in five tournaments. We are playing well, we have a good chance," he added.