Mahesh Bhupathi and Radek Stepanek advanced to the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters with a straight-sets victory over Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra.

The unseeded Indo-Czech pair beat Clement-Llodra 6-4, 6-4 in the first round on Tuesday.

They face a tough challenge against second seeds Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Max Mirnyi of Belarus in the next round.

US Open champions Leander Paes and Martin Damm have not taken part in the clay-court tournament.

In other doubles results, the Russian pair of Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Andreev and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland and Romania's Andrei Pavel also posted first round wins.

The Russians beat wild-card entrants Yves Allegro and Gilles Simon 3-6, 6-2, 10-8, while Nieminen-Pavel beat Benjamin Becker and Eric Butorac 7-6, 6-2.