Also advancing to round two was sixth-seeded Vinod Sridhar who won over qualifier Jay Udwadia of USA 6-4, 7-6, (8-6).

But seventh-seeded Saurav Panja and eight-seeded Shivashanker Kambargimath (both India) lost their opening encounters. Panja lost to Minh Le of US 7-6 (5), 2-6, 2-6 while Kambargimath bowed out to Anton Kokurin of Uzbekistan 1-6, 7-6 (7), 2-6 in a two-hour, 10-minute battle.

Top-seeded Artem Derepasko of Russia, who won the second leg at Mumbai, registered a hard fought victory over unseeded Indian Sandeep Kirtane 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (3) in two hours, 16 minutes. He now meets Russian Mazur Dimitri in the pre-quarterfinals. Mazur breezed past Indian qualifier Sanzaruz Zaman 6-4, 6-0.

Second-seeded Prahlad Srinath of India also advanced to the second round. Srinath, who won the first leg at Bangalore,defeated Ashley Ford of Australia 6-3, 6-3 in 75 minutes. Srinath now meets countryman Rohan Bopanna, a wildcard entrant, in the pre-quarterfinals.

Other results

Men's singles (first round): 3-Syed Fazaluddin (Ind) bt Vijay Kannan (Ind) 6-7 (1), 7-5, 6-1; 4-Harsh Mankad bt P Ravikrishna 6-2, 6-0; Nitin Kirtane (Ind) bt Kedar Shah (Ind) 7-5, 6-3; Vasudeva Reddy (Ind) bt Kamala Kannan (Ind) 6-3, 6-4; Vijayendra Laad (Ind) bt Vishal Uppal (Ind) 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.

Doubles pre-quarterfinals: Prahlad Srinath/Vasudeva Reddy bt Sandeep/Nitin Kirtane 6-3, 6-2; Ashley Ford/Syed Fazaluddin bt Anton Kokurin/Dimitri Mazur 6-3, 6-1; Artem Derepasko/Harsh Mankad bt Kamala Kannan/Vinod Sridhar 6-0, 6-3; Alexander Sikanov/Andrei Youznyi w/o Vijay Kannan/Saurav Panja; Shailesh Dhoble/Anand Radhakrishnan bt Vijendra Laad/Sanzaruz Zaman 6-3, 6-2; Ravi Kiran Bhat/Rohan Bopanna bt Chandrashekhar Mohanty/Siddharth Sudhakar 7-5, 6-4; Minh Le/Jay Udwadia bt Shivashanker Kambargimath/Anjan Viplav 6-7 (8-10), 6-4, 6-1;Mustafa Ghouse/Vishaal Uppal bt Avinash Arun/Manoj Mahadevan 6-2, 6-3.