Melbourne, Jan 20 (IANS) Indians were off to a winning start in Australian Open tennis men's doubles with Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi rallying to beat Ivo Karlovic of Croatia and Dusan Vemic of Serbia 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 in the first round here Thursday.
In contrast, India's Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq-Qureshi had it easy against Brazilian pair Franco Ferreiro and Andre Sa at 6-3, 6-0.
The 11th-seeded Bopanna and Qureshi, the runners-up at 2010 US Open, next play Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Arnaud Clement.
The third-seeded Paes and Bhupathi now await the winner of the match between Spain's Feliciano Lopez and Juan Monaco of Argentina and the Australian pair of Marinko Matosevic and John Millman.
Paes and Bhupathi, a former World No.1 team, are playing together in a Grand Slam after nine years in their bid to complete a career slam.