Mahesh Bhupathi and partner Mark Knowles got off to a smooth start in the US $436,000 SAP Open and easily advanced to the second round of the hard court event in San Jose, United States.
The second seeded Indo-Bahamas pair beat the Czech duo of Jaroslav Levinsky and Radek Stepanek 6-2, 6-3 on Tuesday night.
They next face the American pair of Scott Lipsky and David Martin, who beat Igor Kunitsyn of Russia and Jim Thomas of the US 4-6, 6-3, 12-10 in their opening match.
Rohan Bopanna, another Indian in the fray, has teamed with Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. The pair opens its campaign against Belarusian Max Mirnyi and Great Britain's Jamie Murray.
eanwhile, India's Sunitha Rao surrendered meekly to seventh seed Edina Gallovits and bowed out of the US $185,000 Copa Colsanitas WTA tour event in Bogota, Colombia.
She lost 1-6, 2-6 to her Romanian opponent.
