Melbourne: The fourth seeded pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna had to toil hard for their first round win (5-7, 6-4, 6-4) against Matthew Ebden and Chris Guccione, but Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek had a relatively easier outing as they outplayed Greg Jones and John-Patrick Smith (6-2, 6-2) at the Australian Open here on Wednesday.

Though the Indian duo had an initial hiccup as they lost the first set 5-7, Bhupathi and Bopanna came back strong to take the next two sets 6-4, 6-4. The match that lasted for an hour and 43 minutes saw the Indian duo make 10 unforced errors as compared to eight by their Australian rivals.

Meanwhile, Leander and Stepanek hardly got any resistance from their all Australian opponents as they roped in their match in just 63 minutes.