Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek could not capitalise on a good start and went down to third seeded Chinese duo of Yan Zi and Zheng Jie in a three-set thriller in the women's doubles semifinal of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells on Friday.

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The see-saw encounter saw the seventh seeded Mirza-Mattek go one up before the Chinese pair rallied to win it 6-7 (4), 7-5, 10-4 via the match tie-break.

In the final, the Chinese pair will meet Dinara Safina and Elena Vesnina, who beat Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-3, 6-4 in the other semifinal.