IANS

London, Jun 25: Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowels of Bahamas had to dig deep to move into the second round with a tough 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Indian Somdev Devvarman and South African Kevin Anderson in Wimbledon tennis championships here Wednesday.

Prakash Amritraj and Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, too, had to come through a gruelling encounter to beat Australian Stephen Huss and Ross Hutchins of Britain 6-4, 6-7 (12), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. The match was stopped after two sets due to fading light Tuesday.

Somdev, who was making his first appearance here, and Anderson gave a tough time to their fourth seeded opponents in an over four-hour long match.

Bhupathi and Knowles lost the first set in tie-breaker before drawing level with a break of serve in the second game even as their opponents missed three break points.

The Indo-Bahamian pair took the lead converting one of the four break points in the third set.

Devvarman and Anderson came hard in the fourth set with both teams exchanging couple of breaks, but failed to stop Bhupathi and Knowles from advancing to the next round. They will face will next face Geram Philipp Petzschner and Austrian Alexander Peya.