KAILUA — Rally for rally, shot for shot, it was an epic.

It was doubles tennis at its best.

Minh Le and Wei-Yu Su, like all great teams, made enough clutch plays to beat Michael Bruggemann and Erich Chen, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (7), 7-5, in the semifinals of the Blue Moon Men's Night Doubles last night at the Kailua Racquet Club.

Le and Su, the top seeds and two-time defending champions, were all but through, down a set and trailing 6-3 in the second-set tie-breaker.

But they dug deep and reeled off five consecutive points to take the set.

"It always feels good when you're down match point and it looks like it's pretty much over down three match points," Le said.

Le and Su will face No. 2 seeds Jan Axel Tribler and Mikael Maatta in tonight's 7:30 final for the third consecutive year.

Maatta and Tribler, both former Hawai'i Pacific University standouts, beat No. 3 seeds Ikaika Jobe and Bryan Wooten, 6-2, 6-4, in the second semifinal.

"Let's see if the third time is the charm," Maatta said of facing Le and Su again in the final. "It'll be a fun final."

With the first two sets going to tie-breakers everyone knew the final outcome of the Le-Su and Bruggemann-Chen match would be a major breakthrough for one side and a heart-breaker for the other.

The third set also was dramatic with Le and Su falling behind 4-2 before pulling it out.

"We kept digging ourselves a hole," Le said. "We dug out of one hole and we fell into another. But I have a good partner here as well."

The teams were tied at deuce in the final game, before consecutive winners by Le ended it.

"We both played well," Su said. "We didn't give up."

The match was on serve through the first six games with the setting sun making returns of serves difficult.

Bruggemann and Chen broke Le's serve in the seventh game for a 4-3 advantage. Bruggemann held for 5-3 and Su held to get to 5-4.

Bruggemann and Chen had a great chance to wrap up the first set after taking a 40-15 advantage with Chen serving in the 10th game, but they couldn't put away three set points. Su and Le finally broke on their third opportunity of the game for a 5-5 tie.

Le and Bruggemann were broken to reach the tie-breaker.

The tie-breaker was tied at 6-6 before Le sent a shot long, and Chen ended the set by chasing down and returning a lob — barely avoiding a ball boy in the process — and smoking a ball down the left sideline.

The second set also was on serve through the first six games, before Bruggemann and Le were both broken to get the match back on serve at 4-4. Both teams held serve over the final four games to reach the tie-breaker.

Bruggemann and Chen, the No. 3 seeds, led 4-1 and 6-3 in the tie-breaker only to see Le and Su score five in a row. The set ended with Bruggemann putting consecutive balls into the net.

"We had opportunities, but we didn't capitalize," Bruggemann said.

After the match, Bruggemann was on his back on the court, no doubt thinking about what could have been.

"I'm proud of the way me and Erich played," Bruggemann said. "We didn't expect to get this far because we're old."