India's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi met with contrasting fates with their respective partners in the first round of the Pacific Life Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells on Tuesday.
Paes, partnering Martin Damm of the Czech Republic, made a confident start scoring a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Oliver Rochus of Belgium and Jim Thomas of the US to advance to the second round.
Bhupathi and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek, the Dubai Open finalists, were ousted by the French duo of Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet 4-6, 3-6.
Paes and Damm, the fifth seeds, next meet Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski from Poland.
