Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi overcame an erratic performance to advance to the second round of the men's doubles at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on Wednesday.
Bhupathi and the Belarussian, the second seeds, needed an hour and 40 minutes before prevailing over Devin Bowen of the United States and Australia's Ashley Fisher 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
In another match, Asian wild cards Prakash Amritraj and Hyung-Taik Lee of Korea made a tragic exit, retiring midway through their first round match against South African Wayne Ferreira and Rick Leach of the United States.
Ferreira and Leach had won the first set from a closely contested tie-breaker when the Asian combination retired.
Information on who was injured was not immediately available.
Leander Paes and partner Tomas Cibulec of the Czech Republic are scheduled to play their first round match tomorrow.
Meanwhile, reigning champions Paes and Martina Navratilova have been seeded fourth in the mixed doubles event.
Bhupathi and Elena Likhovtseva of Russia are the second seeds behind Mark Knowles of Bahamas and Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual.
Bhupathi and Mirnyi seemed to be rusty as they were playing together for the first time since the World Doubles Championship last season at Houston in November.
They were up 4-2 in the first set before the Indian's serve came under pressure in the ninth game. They saved three break points to win the game and set after seeing through six deuce.
Bowen and Fisher broke Mirnyi to go 3-0 up in the second set and had two more break points with Bhupathi serving at 15-4.
But the seven-time Grand Slam champions saved both to hold serve and went on to break Bowen to get back into the match. Just when it seemed they had regained the momentum, Mirnyi dropped serve in the 10th game to lose the set.
The Indo-Belarussian pair broke Bowen again in the third set but then wasted five more break points before cracking the rivals once again in the ninth and final game to seal the issue.
