Leander Paes and Martin Damm discuss a point during their match against Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi in Miami on Thursday. (AFP)

Miami: Sixth seeds Leander Paes and Martin Damm came through a tough battle before sealing a berth in the doubles final of the Sony Ericsson Open Masters Series meet.

The Indo-Czech team took 93 minutes to overcome Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra 6-4, 3-6, 12-10 and set up a title clash with second-seeded American twins Bob and Mike Bryan.

Paes and Damm, who knocked out Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi in the quarter finals, saved one match-point at 9-10 in the match tie-break en route to the final, while the Bryan brothers repeated their 2006 Wimbledon final victory over Fabrice Santoro and Nenad Zimonjic, this time the scoreline reading 7-5, 6-2.

Paes and Damm will become the new ATP Doubles Race leaders if they defeat the Bryans, the current leaders, in Saturday’s final.

Reigning US Open champions Paes and Damm are eyeing their second consecutive title — and third in fourth tournaments. They won the Indian Wells Masters Series and Dubai Open.

In women’s action, world No. 1 Justine Henin and three-time champion Serena Williams scored contrasting semi-final wins. Henin stormed into the final with a crushing 6-2, 6-3 win over Russian Anna Chakvetadze, while Williams needed almost two hours to tame gritty Israeli Shahar Peer 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.

Croatian Ivan Ljubicic and Argentine Guillermo Canas, who shocked world No. 1 Roger Federer for the second tournament running, booked semi-final spots with straight-set wins. (Agencies)