India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi of Belarus entered the doubles final of the ATP Tennis Masters Series at Monte Carlo.

The third seeded Indo-Belarussian pair defeated the Czech Republic duo of Frantisek Cermak and Leos Friedl 6-3, 7-6 (15-13) in the semi-finals on Saturday.

Leander Paes and his Czech partner David Rikl, who were seeded fifth, went down to Fabrice Santoro and Michael Llodra of France 3-6, 1-6 in the second round earlier in the week.

Santoro and Llodra play the second semi-final against David Johnson and Kevin Ullyett later on Saturday.

Bhupathi and Mirnyi might have been helped by the fact that Cermak and Friedl were coming into the semi-final match after playing two five-setters on consecutive days.

Bhupathi and Mirnyi, who won the Estoril Open doubles title last week in Portugal, defeated seventh seeds Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands and Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia 6-2, 6-1 in the third round.

The duo dropped a set before winning 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 against Jiri Novak and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in the second round.

They had a bye in the first round.