Paes-Bhupathi kick off World doubles campaign in style

The dynamic Indian duo Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi overcame the first hurdle with confidence at the Touchtel ATP World Doubles Championship in Bangalore in front of a packed stadium at the KSLTA courts on Tuesday night.

Second seeded Bhupathi and Paes, in the Bharati Group, scripted an easy 6-2, 6-3 victory over the first alternates John Laffnie De Jager and Robbie Koeing of South Africa, who replaced the Zimbabwean pair of Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett.

The Indians sent the crowd into raptures with their sparkling volleys and flashing returns.

Both Paes and Bhupathi later told the press conference that they are happy having won their first match before familiar crowd.

"We are happy, first of all, though we started our hunt without any preparation, we were able to click well to cross the first hurdle," they said.

The Indian duo won the first set without having to strain a muscle, but the second witnessed the rivals delaying the Indian win temporarily, when Paes, who was serving for the match at 5-2 lost the game at love and Jager won his eighth game, before Bhupathi served out the match.

Bryan twins beat Ferreira/Leach

Earlier, the Bryan twins of the United States defeated the experienced pair of Ellis Ferreira of South Africa and Rick Leach of the US 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

Bob and Mike Bryan broke Ellis's serve to win the first set at 6-4. But they struggled in the second against the experienced pair.

The second set saw the teams holding serve till the fifth game and in the sixth Ellis and Leach broke Mike`s serve, with the latter serving two double faults. But the twins broke Rick`s serve in the ninth to trail 4-5. With their first serve failing them, the twins were again broken in the 11th game with Bob serving.

The third set saw the twins take a 5-1 lead, breaking Ellis and Rick in the third and fifth games, but again saw their first serves failing them. The veterans on the other side of the net took advantage to make it 4-5 after breaking Bob in the eighth game, but the twins were clearly ahead, the match lasting an hour and 51 minutes.

"Our first serves failed and Ellis and Rick are an experienced pair. You have to close them out when you get the chance otherwise they have it in them to come back strongly," said Bob, when asked what happened in the third set when they were leading 5-1.

Top seeds Johnson/Palmer extended

In what can be described as the best match of the day, top seeds Don Johnson (USA) and Jarred Palmer (RSA) were tested to the limits before prevailing over the eighth seeded team of Tom Vandoudt (Bel) and Chris Haggard (RSA).

Trailing by a set, Johnson and Palmer went into top gear to win the second set and then broke Vanhoudt`s serve in the eighth game of the decider to clinch the longest match of the day.

At one point of time it looked as though the top seeds would be given a lesson by the second alternate team, before the start of the tournament, but the experienced Johnson and Palmer kept their heads on their shoulders and braved the challenge to emerge victors at 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.