Fifth seeds Leander Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm survived a tense battle against the unheralded Serb duo of Novak Djokovic and Janko Tipsarevic for a 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-3 victory in the first round of the men's doubles at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Thursday.
They will take on locals Nathan Healey and Robert Smeets in the second round.
Mahesh Bhupathi and his Czech Republic partner Radek Stepanek also had a tough time before advancing to the second round. They beat Sebastian Grosjean and Olivier Patience of France 6-1, 6-7(4), 6-4 .
Paes and Damm were tested hard in the match, which lasted over two hours, but managed to come through after their opponents lost steam in the third set.
It was supposed to be an easy outing for the fifth seeds against their unheralded rivals, but Djokovic and Tipsarevic showed that they were no walkovers in the very first set.
The Serbs held their serve and matched Paes and Damm shot for shot before losing the 57-minute set via the tie-breaker.
Shaken by the strong challenge, Paes and Damm struggled to find their feet in the second set and apart from committing three double-faults, were broken twice.
The fifth seeds lost the second set but came back hard in the decider to seal the match. They held serve and broke Djokovic and Tipsarevic once besides hitting more winners to survive the challenge and enter the next level.
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