Paes-Bhupathi in second round

Champions in 1999, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi survived a scare to make the second round of the men's doubles at the French Open tennis championships on Thursday night.

The unseeded Indian pair staged a brilliant rally after losing the first set to topple 15th seeds Jaime Oncins of Brazil and Daniel Orsanic of Argentina 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Oncins and Orsanic are currently seeded 16th on the ATP rankings and had beaten the Indians in the first round at the US Open last year.

It was a miserable start for the Indians. They were broken twice in the first set after Bhupathi failed to hold serve in the first and fifth games. They managed to return a break in the eighth game, breaking Oncins's serve but that was all they could achieve. Orsanic served out the 10th game after Bhupathi held serve for the first time, to take the set 6-4.

The second set saw the Indians in better light as Bhupathi was able to get his service going. Both teams gave little away perferring to let the other commit the error. Thus, games went with serve till the tenth game when Oncins was broken after the Indians held double set point. That break enabled the Paes-Bhupathi to take the set at 6-4 and level the match scores.

In the third set, the Indians were in full cry, breaking Orsanic's serve in the second game after Bhupathi did well to hold serve in the first game. Thereafter games went with serve before Bhupathi came back from 0-30 down in the eighth game to serve out the set and match at 6-3.