Leander Paes and Nenad Zimonjic got off to a winning start at the season-ending ATP Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai when they defeated the pair of Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor in three tough sets.

The Indo-Serbian pair, who qualified for the elite eight-team event as the fifth highest ranked team, prevailed 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 in two hours and 18 minutes, in the encounter at the Qi Zhong stadium.

Canadian Nestor and Knowles of the Bahamas had made it to Shanghai by finishing fourth on the annual ATP Doubles Race.

In the other doubles match of the day, seventh seeded Australian pair of Paul Hanley and Wayne Arthurs upset the top seeded Bryan brothers, Bob and Mike, from the United States 7-5, 6-7(3), 7-6 (4).

All four pairs are in the Red Group of the draw. Paes and Zimonjic have to play the Bryan brothers and Hanley and Arthurs in the round-robin stages later in the tournament.

The Gold Group features world number two, Jonas Bjorkman-Max Mirnyi, number three Wayne Black-Kevin Ullyett, number six Michael Llodra-Fabrice Santoro and number eight Stephen Huss-Wesley Moody.