Melbourne: Veteran Leander Paes and fellow Indian Purav Raja defeated N. Basilashvili and A. Haider-Maurer in straight sets in the first round of the men's doubles competition at the Australian Open tennis tournament here on Thursday.
The Indian combination did not face too much trouble from their European opponents as they eased to a 6-2, 6-3 win.
The Indians will be up against J. Murray of Britain and Brazil's B. Soares in the second round.
Murray and Soares had beaten the American pair of D. Young and F. Tiafoe in the opening round on Wednesda