Mahesh Bhupathi in New York Saturday

New York: Leander Paes and his mixed doubles partner Martina Navratilova have reached the second round of the US Open with a straight set victory over Stephen Huss of Australia and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain.

Paes and his legendary partner had little trouble getting the better of their first-round opponents 6-4, 6-1.

In men’s doubles, India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and Matin Damm of the Czech Republic scraped past the Croatian pair of Ivan Ljibicic and Mario Ancic on Saturday to book their spot in the third round of the draw.

After winning the first set in a tie-break (7-3), the Indo-Czech pair dropped the second 3-6.

The third set went down to the wire but Bhupathi and Damm held their nerve to take out the match in another tiebreak (8-6).