Paes-Cibulec win first round

Indian tennis ace Leander Paes and his new partner Tomas Cibulec of the Czech Republic had an easy time in their first round match at the French Open doubles championship, beating Italy's Massimo Bertolini and Cristian Brandi 6-0, 6-2 on court No. 5 on Thursday.

In the second round they meet a relatively younger pair in 20-year-old Mardy Fish and 22-year-old Jeff Morrison of the United States, who rallied well to get the better of Gregory Carraz and Nicolas Mahut, 3-6, 7- 6(6), 6-4 in another first round match.

Paes's former partner Mahesh Bhupathi is partnering Maz Miryni of Belarus. They are seeded No. 3 and due to play Robbie Koenig of South Africa and Thomas Shimada of Japan later in the day.

Top seeds Donald Johnson and Jared Palmer of the United States also had an easy first round outing, posting a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Julian Knowle of Austria and Michael Kohlmann of Germany. They meet Lucas Arnold and Gaston Etlis of Argentina, who accounted for Spain's Juan Ignacio Carrasco and Alex Lopez Moron 6-2, 6-3.