Paes has grown to a stature where he can pull off matches through sheer mental strength. That was the only key he had against the 211-ranked, tall and thin Parisian today in a match where the top seeded Indian was rather clueless and was almost washed away in a flood of unforced errors during the more than two-hour encounter.

And, with Bhupathi playing the best tennis in a long while, Paes has a match on his hands tomorrow when the top stars meet in a final for the second time in two months, the earlier one being at the Calcutta Challenger in February, where Paes won.

Bhupathi dropped a set for the first time in the tournament but that did not stophim from taking out third seed Argentinian Gaston Etlis -- his third seeded victim in four days -- 3-6, 6-0, 7-5 in the other semifinal.

``I'm enjoying this week like never before,'' Bhupathi said. But his senior partner's predicament was in stark contrast during the entire week. Today, Paes hit rock bottom. His serving was downright poor, returns were wayward and his volleys -- Carraz let him have very little of that -- were too average and if he has to thank anybody, it rather be his head and his opponent who slipped in 19 double faults. Paes contributed 10 more to that, adding up truckloads of unforced errors both made.

``It was a challenge for me to win such matches. Because it was not a big occasion, not many people on the stands and I still managed to dive for some points which also showed that I have the urge to win this tournament,'' Paes said.

After two and three-fourth sets of absolutely unforgettable tennis, Paes awoke when the noose was already on the neck. In the final set tie-breaker, hesquandered a match point while serving at 6-5. Soon, he was down match point at 6-7 with Carraz's serve to come. A backhand chip on second serve helped him save that and match point number two came with a forehand cross court winner. At 9-8, with Carraz serve, it was match point number three. The Frenchman saved that but double-faulted to give the fourth match point. Paes served out the match.

Earlier, Bhupathi was in the right frame of mind after the straight-set demolition of second seed Vladimir Voltchkov yesterday. After the initial lack of rhythm in the first set, Bhupathi's tennis simply flowed. The stockily-built Etlis just withered after the first set, especially after Bhupathi did not even allow him one game in the second set. Etlis managed to save two match points in the 10th game of the final set, but failed to hold on to the 12th game.

Said Paes of Bhupathi: ``He is serving and volleying well. We know each other's game like the back of our hands and it's going to be funmatch.''

Results

Singles (semifinals): Leander Paes (Ind) bt Gregory Carraz (Fra) 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (9); Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) bt Gaston Etlis (Arg) 3-6, 6-0, 7-5

Final: Paes vs Bhupathi

Doubles (semifinals): Barry Cowan (Gbr)/Wesley Whitehouse (RSA) bt Lorenzo Manta (Sui)/Vladimir Voltchkov (Blr) 7-6 (10), 6-3; Noam Behr/E Ran (Isr) bt Tuomas Ketola (Fin)/Petr Pala (Cze) 7-5, 6-4.