Top seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and his new partner Martin Damm of Czech Republic faced a tough challenge from their wild card opponents before moving into the doubles second round of the Mercedes Cup at Stuttgart.
Bhupathi and Damm clinched their first round match 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8) against local pair of Florian Mayer and Lars Burgsmuller on the clay court at the euro 614,750 prize money tournament. The winners will next take on another local challenge Andreas Beck and Sebastian Rieschick, who defeated Tomas Berdych and Jaroslav Levinsky of Czech Republic 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (4).