Chennai: Indian tennis veteran Leander Paes, teaming up with South African Raven Klaasen, Tuesday made a winning start to his Chennai Open doubles campaign, notching up a comfortable straight sets victory in the first round. Top seeded Paes and Klaasen won their first round match against Andrea haider Maurer of Austria and L Lacko of Slavokia, beating them 6-4, 6-4.
The win kept alive Paes' hopes of winning his seventh doubles title in this ATP series tournament, which is in its 20th year.
The win also raised prospects of a quarterfinal clash between Paes and former partner Mahesh Bhupathi if they proceed to that round.
In another doubles match, the second seeded pair of A Begemann of Germany and Robin Haase of the Netherlands beat Jiri Vesely and F Cermak of Czech republic 7-6, 6-4.
