Paris: Indian tennis ace Leander Paes and his American partner Scott Lipsky produced a spirited performance as they bounced back from a set down to book their place in the second round of the French Open here on Wednesday.
After comfortably winning the first set, the Indo-American duo went down in the second before they rebounded strongly to register a 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2 win over the Moldovan-Korean team of Radu Albot and Hyeon Chung in an opening round clash that lasted one hour and 55 minutes.
Paes and Lipsky will now take on Spanish pairing of Tommy Robredo and David Marrero, who outplayed top seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 to storm into the next round.
In another men’s doubles clash, the Indo-Uruguayan duo of Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas also made it to the second round of the tournament after posting a straight-sets triumph over French pair of Mathias Bourgue and Paul-Henri Mathieu.
The ninth seeds clinched a comfortable 6-1, 6-1 win over Bourgue and Mathieu. They will next lock horns with Filipino Treat Huey and Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin.
Meanwhile, India’s Sania Mirza and her Kazakhstani partner Yaroslava Shvedova suffered a major blow as they slumped to a first round defeat against Russian pair of Daria Gavrilova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-7 (5), 6-1, 2-6 in the women’s doubles category of the tournament