Dubai ATP: Yuki and Alexei advance to the semi-finals with a thrilling win

India's Yuki Bhambri and his Australian partner Alexei Popyrin defeated last week's champions, Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool of Great Britain, at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Thursday.

The Indo-Australian pair has now secured a spot in the semi-finals of this ATP 500 tournament, winning a close three-set encounter (5-7, 7-6, 10-5) that lasted 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Back-to-back semifinal for Yuki

This match was also a rematch of last week's Qatar Open semi-final, where the British duo had prevailed over Bhambri and his then-partner, Ivan Dodig of Croatia.

This marks Yuki's second consecutive semi-final on the circuit and his third ATP 500 semi-final appearance in doubles.

Yuki and Popyrin made a strong start, not dropping a single point on their serve until the fifth game, and taking a 4-1 lead in the opening set after securing a break in the fourth game.

However, the British pair responded brilliantly, claiming two breaks in the same set to turn the tide in their favor, winning 7-5.

The second set was much more balanced, with both pairs holding serve efficiently, leading to a tiebreaker. This time, the Indo-Australian duo took an early lead and held on to force a deciding super tiebreaker.

In the final set, Yuki and Popyrin once again gained an early advantage, earning four match points and converting them with ease to seal the victory, 10-5.

They will now face the British-Australian duo of Jamie Murray and John Peers in the semi-final tomorrow at 2:30 PM IST.