London, July 3 (IANS): India's Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek moved into the semi-final of the men's doubles at Wimbledon with a hard fought win over Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor in the quarter-finals at the All England Club here Thursday.
The fifth-seeded Indo-Czech pair won 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-4 against the third seeded Serbian-Canadian pair in an encounter that lasted a gruelling two hours and 37 minutes on court 1.
Paes and Stepanek looked rusty in the first set as Zimonjic and Nestor easily took the set in 33 minutes. The Indo-Czech pair came back strongly in the second set and took it to the tie-breakers that they won 7-5. Nestor served well in the second set hitting five aces but also made four double faults.
In the last two sets, Paes and Stepanek found their rhythm and completely dominated the proceedings to carve out a tough win.
In the semi-final, Paes and Stepanek will face the winner of the match between the Canadian-American pair of Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock and the second seeded Austrian-Brazilian combine of Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares.
Paes has won the men's doubles title at Wimbledon only once in 1999. But he has three-mixed doubles titles here in 1999, 2003 and 2010. Paes is also one of the few to win both the men's doubles and the mixed doubles title together here in 1999.