On a mixed day for India, defending champions and third seeds Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy crashed out but Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi entered the men's doubles second round of the US Open in New York.
Paes and Dlouhy were the first of the two pairs to take the court and were in for disappointment as the Czech-Slovakian combination of Martin Damm and Filip Polasek rallied to beat them 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-4.
Paes has been a two-time champion (2006 and 2009) and three-time runners-up at the Grand Slam event with different partners. Interestingly, the Indian veteran's 2006 title triumph at the Flushing Meadows came with Damm.
However, Bopanna and Qureshi ensured that the Indians had something to cheer about when the 16th seeded duo defeated Americans Brian Battistone and Ryler DeHeart 6-3, 7-6 (7).
Bopanna and Qureshi will now play against the winners of the match between the unseeded teams of Americans Sekou Bangoura and Nathan Pasha and Michael Kohlmann (Germany) and Jarkko Nieminen (Finland).
