London: Experienced Indian doubles pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi survived a scare to reach the second round of the Wimbledon on Friday.
The third seeded Indian pair registered a hard-fought 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Croatian combo of Ivan Dodig and Lovro Zovko in the opening round of the prestigious grass court tournament here.
Somdev Devvarman and his Japanese partner Kei Nishikori also crossed the first hurdle and advanced to the second round with a 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-2 win over German duo of Rainer Schuettler and Alexander Waske in the men's doubles.
In women's doubles, Sania Mirza and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina reached the prequarterfinals after registering a thrilling three-setter victory over Czech Renata Voracova and Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan.
The fourth seeded Indo-Russian pair defeated the Czech-Kazakhstan combination 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
Earlier, Somdev became a first round casualty in his Wimbledon debut when he went down in straight sets to Russian Mikhail Youzhny in the second round.
The 68th ranked Indian lost 2-6, 4-6, 4-6 to 18th seed Russian in the rain-hit match last night.
The fourth seeded Indo-Pak Express of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq had made a shock first round exit with a 6-2,
2-6, 19-21 defeat against unseeded Colombians Juan Sebastian
Cabal and Robert Farah in a marathon three-setter.
PTI
First Published: Friday, June 24, 2011, 23:33