Indian duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi shrugged off a rusty start and rallied from a set down to register a 2-6 6-3 6-2 victory over German pair of Tommy Haas and Philipp Petzschner in the doubles first round of the French Open on Thursday. Aiming to win their third French Open title together,it took the "Indian Express" duo an hour and 36 minutes to send their opponents packing at the Roland Garros. The third-seed Indians were completely off-colour in the first set as they could get just 33 percent of their second serve right as compared to German pair's 60 per cent. While the experienced Indian pair committed two double faults,Haas-Petzschner did not make a single mistake,instead they managed to convert both their break points to win the set comfortably 6-2. However,Paes and Bhupathi got their act together quickly in the second set and were able to convert one of their four break points to prevail over the Germans 6-3. In the decider,the Indian pair,who were champions in 1999 and 2001,put up a clinical performance to outsmart Haas and Petzschner and run away with the set and the match. In the next round,Paes and Bhupathi will meet Australian duo of Ashley Fisher and Stephen Huss. Meanwhile,India's Somdev Devvarman and his Chinese Taipei partner Yen-Hsun Lu failed to clear the first hurdle in the men's doubles,going down 3-6 4-6 to Feliciano Lopez and Marcel Granollers of Spain on Thursday. Somdev had earlier lost to world no 37 Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia in the first round of the men's singles event also.
