World No. 2 doubles pair Mahesh Bhupathi of India and Max Mirnyi of Belarus registered their first victory in the ATP Masters Cup, beating Australia's Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley 6-4, 7-6(2) on Monday.
The second seeds had to beat the Aussies, seeded fifth, to stay in the reckoning after losing their opening match to the Argentine pair of Martin Rodriguez and Gaston Etlis, and they won comfortably.
Arthurs and Hanley too had lost their opening match.
There was nothing much to shout about in the first set. Bhupathi and Mirnyi took an early lead, converting their first break point in the fourth game. That sufficed for them to take the set, though they could have had another break in the eighth game but were unable to capitalize on the chances that came their way.
But it was not as easy in the second set as the Aussies broke in the fourth game and went up 4-1. Mirnyi appeared to have lapsed in concentration but Bhupathi displayed solid stuff, returning and serving well. The Indo-Belarussian pair broke back in the sixth game to cut the lead when Hanley served a double-fault. Games then went with serve as Bhupathi and Mirnyi saved six set points in the ninth game before the set went into the tie-break.
In the tie-breaker, Bhupathi and Mirnyi won five straight points from 2-2 to race away with the set and match.
The Indo-Belarussian pair meet the unbeaten pair of Daniel Nestor of Canada and Mark Knowles of Bahamas , who beat Gaston Etlis and Martin Rodriguez 6-2, 6-1 for their second straight victory.
Australia's Todd Woodbridge and Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman beat Czechs Martin Damm and Cyril Suk 6-3, 6-3 to bounce back from an opening-day loss in the season-ending showdown of the year's eight top doubles teams.
Top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan scored their second straight victory. The American twins, bidding to become the first brothers to finish the year as the No.1 team, beat the French pair of Michel Llorda and Fabrice Santoro 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
