Former partners Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes started off their respective doubles campaigns on a winning note at the US $600,000 Legg Mason Classic in Washington on Tuesday.
Paes advanced to the quarter-finals at the expense of 22-year-old fellow-Indian Somdev Dev Varman. The experienced Indo-Czech duo of Paes and Damm, seeded second, struggled against wild card entrants Dev Varman and American John Isner before winning 6-2, 3-6, 10-8.
Dev Varman, the only Indian to qualify for the singles event, went down 6-4, 6-2 to Paul Goldstein of the United States.
Bhupathi and his British partner Tim Henman also made it to the last eight pair with a straight-set win in the first round.
The Indo-British pair got the better of the Korean-American pair of Hyung-Taik Lee and Michael Russell, winning 6-2, 7-5, to enter the last eight stage of the hard court tournament.
Bhupathi and Henman will take on the Australian-Zimbawean pair of Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyet, while Paes and Damm meet South Africa's Chris Haggard and tall Croat Ivo Karlovic.
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