India’s Yuki Bhambri made his first men’s doubles semi-finals of the ATP 500 tour after he and partner Robin Haase upset third seeds Jamie Murray and Michael Venus in the Dubai Open here on Thursday.

Bhambri and his Dutch partner Haase, who came through the qualifying round to earn a spot in the main draw, took one hour and 22 minutes to produce a remarkable performance to beat Britain’s Murray and New Zealand’s Venus 6-4, 7-6(1).

In the semi-final to be played on Friday, Bhambri and Haase will face the second-seeded pairing of Ivan Dodig (Croatia) and Austin Krajicek (US).

However, there was disappointment in store for the Australian Open men’s doubles winning pair of India’s Rohan Bopanna and Australia’s Matthew Ebden, who lost in the quarter finals.

The top-seeded pair of Bopanna and Ebden began well but their opponents, Uruguay’s Ariel Behar and Czech Republic’s Adam Pavlasek, came from behind to emerge 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 winners.

Medvedev advances

In the men’s singles, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev stayed on course toward a potential rematch for the title after the Russians won their quarter finals.

Medvedev, the top seed, defeated eighth-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-2, 6-3. The second-seeded Rublev advanced when Sebastian Korda retired with an unspecified injury. Rublev was up 6-4, 4-3 at the time.

Rublev will face seventh-seeded Alexander Bublik, who reached the last four after his Czech opponent Jiri Lehecka also retired with an injury.