Paes-Black battle their way to Australian Open final

MELBOURNE - India’s Leander Paes and Cara Black of Zimbabwe battled past seventh seeds Lisa Raymond of US and Wesley Moodie of South Africa to enter the mixed doubles final of the Australian Open here Friday.

The top seeded Indo-Zimbabwean pair rallied from a set down to register a fighting 6-7(6), 7-6(5), 10-7 win over Raymond and Moodie.

Paes and Black meet Russian Ekaterina Makarova and Czech Jaroslav Levinsky for the title clash Sunday. Makarova and Levinsky defeated Italian Flavia Pennetta and Marcelo Melo of Brazil 6-0, 4-6 , 10-8.

Paes and Black will be eyeing their second Grand Slam together. The two won the US Open in 2008. They finished runners-up in the Wimbledon and the US open last year.