Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi went out of the 2.4-million-euro ATP Masters in Spain after losing to top seeds Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor in the doubles semi-finals on Friday.

It was a closely-fought tie, where the fifth seeded Indo-Belarusian pair put up strong challenge before going down to the reigning US Open champions 4-6, 6-7(3/7).

Earlier, Bhupathi and Mirnyi had defeated Domnik Hrbaty of Slovakia and Germany's Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 6-2 in the quarter-finals on Thursday.