India's [ Images ] Leander Paes [ Images ] and Mahesh Bhupathi [ Images ] met with contrasting fates with their respective partners in the first round of the Pacific Life Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells on Tuesday.

Paes, partnering Martin Damm [ Images ] of the Czech Republic, made a confident start scoring a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Oliver Rochus of Belgium and Jim Thomas of the US to advance to the second round.

Bhupathi and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek, the Dubai [ Images ] Open finalists, were ousted by the French duo of Julien Benneteau [ Images ] and Richard Gasquet 4-6, 3-6.

Paes and Damm, the fifth seeds, next meet Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski from Poland.