By IANS
Melbourne : Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi sailed into second round of the Australian Open after winning their respective men’s doubles opening round clashes at the Melbourne Park here Thursday.
Paes and his Australian partner Paul Hanley, seeded fifth, edged past the unseeded pair of Luis Homa of Peru and Austrian Stefan Koubek 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (9-7) while the sixth seeded duo Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of Bahamas beat Russian Mikhail Youzhny and Germany’s Mischa Zverev 7-6 (12-10), 6-4.
Bhupathi and Knowles took 99 minutes to wrap up the events against their opponents. The duo was a bit indisciplined as they made six double faults in comparison to just one committed by Youzhny and Zverev.
It was the same with Paes and Hanley as they committed five double faults while Homa and Koubek made only two in the encounter that lasted 108 minutes. The Indo-Australian duo, however, were better on their first serves, winning 72 percent of their points on them, while Homa and Koubek managed 62 percent.