Bhupathi-Knowles crash out of Australian Open

MELBOURNE: Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner Mark Knowles of Bahamas were knocked out of the Australian Open after they suffered a straight set loss in the men's doubles semifinals here on Thursday.

A day after upsetting top seeds and world number one Bryan brothers, Bhupathi and Knowles failed to capitalise on their chances and were sent packing 6-4 6-4 by Israeli eighth-seeds Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram in an hour and 32 minutes.

The sixth seeded Indo-Bahamas duo wasted four breakpoints in the first set and two in the second while their opponents were successful in breaking them once in each set.

Erlich and Ram now take on seventh seeded French pair of Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra in the summit clash.

Clement and Llodra beat South African duo of Jeff Coetzee and Wesley Moodie 6-3 7-6(9) in their semi-final.

Meanwhile, Yuki Bhambri continued his impressive run in the junior singles event and entered the semifinals after defeating Britain's third seed Daniel Evans in a last eight match.

The Delhi boy overcame stiff resistance from Evans to win 7-6(5) 4-6 6-3 and move to the last four stage.

The eighth-seeded Indian will now clash with fifth seed local challenger Bernard Tomic for a place in the final.

Berrnard shocked top seed Cesar Ramirez of Mexico 6-3 6-4 in his quarter-final contest.