Mahesh Bhupathi [ Images ] and Radek Stepanek advanced to the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters with a straight-sets victory over Frenchmen Arnaud Clement [ Images ] and Michael Llodra.

The unseeded Indo-Czech pair beat Clement-Llodra 6-4, 6-4 in the first round on Tuesday.

They face a tough challenge against second seeds Jonas Bjorkman [ Images ] of Sweden and Max Mirnyi [ Images ] of Belarus in the next round.

US Open [ Images ] champions Leander Paes [ Images ] and Martin Damm [ Images ] have not taken part in the clay-court tournament.

In other doubles results, the Russian pair of Dmitry Tursunov [ Images ] and Igor Andreev and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland and Romania's Andrei Pavel also posted first round wins.

The Russians beat wild-card entrants Yves Allegro and Gilles Simon 3-6, 6-2, 10-8, while Nieminen-Pavel beat Benjamin Becker and Eric Butorac 7-6, 6-2.