Busan: Top seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes moved into the final of the tennis doubles event as India assured itself of at least two silver and an equal number of bronze medals in the 14th Asian Games on Thursday.

The Indian duo, reuniting for the Asian Games after parting ways for a second time six months ago, overcame a spirited resistance by the South Korean pair of Oh Hee Kwon and Dong Hyun Kim before registering a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory.

Bhupathi kept himself on course for a 'double' by cruising into the final of the mixed doubles event with Manisha Malhotra after defeating the Uzbek duo of Iroda Tulyaganova and Oleg Ogorodov with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 verdict.

Having made the finals in two events, the Indians have assured themselves of at least two silver while the other men's doubles semi-finalists Vishal Uppal and Mustafa Ghouse and mixed doubles semi-finalists Paes and Sania Mirza, who lost their matches on Thursday, will get bronze medals.

As per Asian Games rules, both the losing semi-finalists are awarded bronze medals. Uppal and Ghouse lost to South Korean Lee Hyang-Taik and Chung Hee-Seok 4-6, 4-6 to deny an all-India final.

India was also denied another double when Paes and Sania were ousted 6-7 (4/7), 5-7 by Taiwan's Janet Lee and Lu Yen-Hsun.

Paes and Bhupathi showed signs of the old magic that had helped them win three grand slams titles and it was their experience and never-say-die attitude, which saw them through.

The Indian pair combined well to wrap up the first set quite easily but seemed to lose their rhythm in the next set as the hosts bounced back to level the set score 1- 1 and put pressure on the former world number one team.

But with the experience of handling pressure situations, Paes and Bhupathi lifted their game by a few notches to clinch the decider in a battle which lasted nearly one and half hours.

In the mixed doubles, though Paes seemed to be in fine form, he could not get the desired support from the young Mirza who was guilty of committing a number of unforced errors, which allowed their rivals to wriggle out of tight situations.

PTI