Leander Paes's touch at the net and Aisam Qureshi's sizzling serves saw the India-Pakistan duo sail into the doubles second round of the Kingfisher Airlines Open tennis tournament at the Cricket Club of India on Wednesday.
Paes and Qureshi, who teamed up after the Indian ace's regular partner, Martin Damm, pulled out due to Davis Cup commitments, beat Paraguay's Ramon Delgado and Greece's Konstantinos Economidis 6-4, 6-4 to set up a clash with Mahesh Bhupathi and Mario Ancic in the second round.
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Also advancing was the pair of Rohan Bopanna and Mustafa Ghouse, who beat South Africa's Rik De Vost and Igor Kunitsyn of Russia 7-6, 6-1.
"We played very well for our first match together. It was more instinctive tennis rather than focus on strategies," said Paes after the victory.
The Indian ace also said that he and Qureshi would be the underdogs in the second round, considering Ancic is the world number 11 in singles and Bhupathi a top doubles player.
Earlier, 16-year-old Indian wild card Akash Wagh dished out an impressive performance before going down to Dmitry Tursenov of Russia 2-6, 5-7, while top seed Tommy Robredo and Czech Tomas Berdych had an easy passage into the second round.
Robredo conquered Alexander Peya 6-4, 6-2 while third seed Berdych defeated Poland's Lukasz Kubot 6-2, 6-2.
France's Nicolas Devilder did not have it as easy, having to battle his way past Rik De Voest of South Africa, winning 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
Robredo and Peya played out a high quality first-set, wooing the crowd with their power and athleticism. Austria's Peya was broken in the fifth game of the match with Robredo marshalling the baseline relentlessly. The ninth game, which went to eight deuces and saw some great touch volleys from the players, seemed to have taken a lot out of Peya, who lost five games in a row before losing the first set 4-6.
With Peya's steam gone he was down 0-4 in the second set -- Robredo found it easy to out-hit his opponent and win the set and match at 6-2.
Paes and Qureshi showed no signs of hesitancy while playing on the same side of the court for the first time. The Pakistani was impossible to break; he served with a zip and dropped only four points in his service games. Though Paes took time to get going, once he found his rhythm he was the usual foxy self, conjuring the drop volleys and cutting through Delgado and Economidis.
The pair broke Delgado-Economidis in the fifth game in the first set and seventh game in the second to cruise through the match.
Qureshi said that the pressure was hardly on him while playing with a legendary doubles player like Paes.
"Even if I didn't serve well I knew there was a guy who could pretty much cover the entire net," the 26-year-old from Lahore said.
"I wasn't really nervous at the start since I've known Leander for a long time and the last 2-3 days we've practiced he's made me stay calm."
The much-anticipated doubles clash between Paes and Bhupathi will be played on Friday.
