India’s Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have won their first round match in the men’s doubles tennis event in Beijing Olympics. Paes and Bhupathi beat French pair of Simon Gilles and Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the second round.

The Indian pair set world tennis alights in 1999, reaching all Four Grand Slam finals. But a year later they split because of personal problems. Since then, they have paired only in Olympic Games, Asian Games and Davis Cup. On the ATP Tour, they have played with different partners, even though fans and media in India wanted to play together. In the Athens Olympics in 2004, they missed bronze medal by whiskers when they lost to Croatian pair of Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic in a marathon match that started on Friday night and ended during early hours of Saturday. There is a huge anticipation of Medal from Paes and Bhupathi and this first round easy victory will give them the desired confidence.

With Sania Mirza retired hurt from the Women’s Tennis Event and little chance she can play the Women’s Double Event with Sunita Rao, her doubles partner, all eyes are on Paes and Bhupathi to strike for the Gold for the Tennis Event.

We wish Paes and Bhupathi all the best for the next draw.

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