Leander Paes and Jurgen Melzer snapped Mike and Bob Bryan’s 20-match winning streak with a 7-5 6-1 win over the Americans to make it to the summit clash of the Shanghai Masters here on Saturday.
The Bryan brothers were aiming to win their fifth successive tour-level title, following triumphs in Toronto, Cincinnati, the U.S. Open and Beijing.
It is only their second defeat since reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals in July.
Third seeds Paes and Melzer will fight it out with sixth seed Polish pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski, who beat compatriot Lukasz Kobot and Austria’s Oliver Marach 7-6(7) 1-6 10-6 in their semifinal.
Paes and Melzer had defeated India’s Rohan Bopanna and Pakistani Aisam-ul-Qureshi 6-7(6) 7-6(6) 10-4 in the quarter-finals.