Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner Paola Suarez of Argentina survived a scare before winning their mixed doubles first round match in the US Open tennis tournament at New York on Friday night.
The top-seeded Indo-Argentine pair was stretched by Petra Mandula of Hungary and Graydon Oliver of the United States before winning 6-7 (7-9), 6-4, 7-6 (10-8).
The match, which witnessed a see-saw battle throughout, provided much excitement to the spectators as Petra and Graydon took the first set in tie-breaker.
Bhupathi and Paola, however, regained their composure in time to win the second set rather comfortably.
The decider also went to the wire but the Indo-Argentine pair pocketed points at crucial junctures to take away the match.
Bhupathi has also moved into the second round of the men's doubles events in the championship. Partnering Belarus's Max Mirnyi, Bhupathi defeated Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty and Andre Sa of Brazil 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in the first round on Wednesday.
