Paes-Navratilova win easy

Leander Paes [ Images ] and Mahesh Bhupathi [ Images ] surged ahead with their respective partners in the first round of the mixed doubles at the US Open [ Images ] at Flushing Meadows, New York on Thursday.

Paes and the legendary Martina Navratilova, seeded seventh, overcame the French pair of Tatiana Golovin [ Images ] and Fabrice Santoro [ Images ] 6-3, 6-2 to advance into the second round.

The Indo-American pair will face Virginia Ruano Pascual and Stephen Huss in the next round.

Paes' former doubles partner Bhupathi though had to face a stiffer challenge to ward off the first hurdle.

Bhupathi, partnering Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova [ Images ], dropped the first set, but scraped through the next two, to register a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9) victory over Tiantian Sun of China and Simon Aspelin of Sweden.

Their next match is scheduled against fourth seeds Lisa Raymond [ Images ] and Jonas Bjorkman [ Images ] on Saturday.