Paes reaches mixed doubles final

NEW YORK: Leander Paes and Meghann Shaughnessy fought back from a set down to beat Liezel Huber of USA and Jamie Murray of Britain and storm into the finals of the mixed doubles competition of US Open here.

The Indo-US pair came through a gruelling semifinal encounter to score a 6-7 (4) 7-6 (5) 10-5 win. They set up a clash with Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi of Belarus in the finals.

Azarenka and Mirnyi got the better of Zi Yan of China and Mark Knowles of Bahamas 7-6 (5) 6-4 in the other semifinal.

Meanwhile, Sania Mirza and her partner Bethanie Mattek of US crashed out in the quarterfinals, losing 3-6 6-3 6-4 to Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung of Chinese Taipei.

Paes will be aiming at his eighth Grand Slam win of his career.

Paes, along with Martin Damm, won the men's doubles title last time, but the Indo-Czech pair was ousted in the very first round this year.

That was Paes's last win in a Grand Slam. He has so far won four men's doubles title- three of which came alongside Mahesh Bhupathi- and three mixed doubles crown.

His first mixed doubles title came with Lisa Raymond as partner in Wimbledon 1999, and thereafter he won twice with Martina Navratilova in 2003-- Wimbledon and Australian Open.