Paes-Bhupathi in final

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi were forced to go through several anxious moments before making it to the final of the men's doubles at the French Open tennis championships on Thursday.

The 1999 champions, who are unseeded this year, got the better of 11th seeds Michael Hill of Australia and Jeff Tarango of the United States 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in an exciting semi-final to set up a meeting with either 13th seeds Petr Pala / Pavel Vizner of the Czech Republic or Frenchmen Arnaud Clement / Nicolas Escude, who clash in the second semi-final later in the day.

Two breaks -- Tarango was broken in the seventh game and Hill in the ninth -- gave the Indians the first set in quick time. However, they met with stiff resistance in the second set as Tarango and Hill plugged the gaps and returned everything.

After both teams took the opening games in the set, the Aussie-US pair effected their first break on Bhupathi's serve in the third game. The Indians tried hard to nullify it but in vain. They were broken again in the ninth game, this time on Paes's serve as Hill and Tarango took the set.

The decider was a battle royal after Paes and Bhupathi broke Tarango in the third game on their second break point. Games went with serve thereafter, and it looked like the Indians would cruise through till they were broken on Paes's serve in the eighth game.

However, to their credit, they pulled up their socks and returned the break in the very next game on Hill's serve on their second break point for a 5-4 lead.

Bhupathi then served out the set, winning the 10th game at 30 to give them a berth in the final.

The victory saw Paes and Bhupathi extend their win streak at the French Open to 11 matches, dating back to 1999.

It also gave them 250 extra points to add to the 450 they have already picked up, and moved them to the No. 2 spot in the world team rankings.