Paes-Damm in French Open second round

PARIS: The third seeded Indo-Czech pair of Leander Paes and Martin Damm quelled the challenge of local hopes Jeremy Chardy and Jonathan Eysseric 7-6(4), 7-6(2) to advance into the second round of French Open here.

Paes and Damm were stretched by the local combination but the experienced Indo-Czech duo ultimately prevailed over them on Wednesday.

The third seeds were hardly impressive and wasted several opportunities during their patchy display. They could convert just one break point out of 10 that came their way.

Paes and Damm will next take on the winners of the match between Michael Kohlmann and Rainer Schuettler of Germany and the Russian-Chilean pair of Teimuraz Gabashvili and Nicolas Massu.

Mahesh Bhupathi and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek will open their campaign on Thursday and take on the Polish duo of Mariusz Fyrstenber and Marcin Matkowski in their first round match.

Sania Mirza, who stormed into the singles second round with an easy 6-1, 6-1 win Alberta Brianti on Wednesday, will face off against seventh seed Ana Evanovic of Serbia.

Sania has a busy schedule for today as, apart from the singles, the 20-year-old will also play her women's doubles opener pairing with Eva Birnerova of Czech Republic.

The Indo-Czech duo is up against the top seeded pair of American Lisa Raymond and Australian Samantha Stosur.