Paes-Dlouhy in second round of US Open

New York:

Indian ace Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy pulled off a hard-fought win against Romanian pair of Victor Hanescu and Gabriel Trifu to enter second round of the US Open men's doubles event here.

The fourth seeds handed a 7-6 (13/11) 7-6 (7/4) defeat to Hanescu and Trifu in the gruelling match that lasted for 1 hr 47 minutes last night.

It was a see-saw battle from the very beginning but Paes and Dlouhy held their nerves to bag the first set through a tie-breaker.

In the second set, the Romanians tried hard to claw their way back into the proceedings but the Paes and Dlouhy foiled their opponents' bid and rounded off the tally in their favour.

The Indo-Czech duo will now take on winner of another first round match, in which Spainsh pair of Nicolas Almagro and Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo will lock horns with Teimuraz Gabashvili and Dmitry Tursunov of Russia.