Leander Paes [ Images ] avenged his Olympic [ Images ] bronze medal play-off defeat in style as he teamed up with David Rikl of the Czech Republic to humble Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia [ Images ] in straight sets in the opening round of the US Open [ Images ] men's doubles in New York on Thursday.

The 13th seed pair of Paes and Rikl had no problems clearing the opening hurdle against the Croatians, coasting to a 6-4, 6-2 victory.

Ancic and Ljubicic had won a marathon four-hour battle against the Indian pair of Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi [ Images ] in Athens last month to shatter the hopes of over one billion countrymen.

Paes and Rikl will now face the Swiss-German pair of Yves Allegro and Michael Kohlmann in the second round.

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Allegro and Kohlmann had to work hard to overcome the challenge of Hicham Arazi of Morroco and Tom Vandoudt of Belarus, prevailing 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

In the mixed doubles, Paes and Martina Navratilova of the United States, seeded eighth, defeated the pair of Daniela Hantuchova [ Images ] of Slovakia and Mark Knowles [ Images ] of Bahamas 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) to move into the second round.

They will now meet the winner of the match between Maria Vento-Kabchi of Venezuela/Mariano Hood of Argentina and Paula Suarez of Argentina/Hicham Arazi of Morroco.