Nestor-Zimonjic Reach Second Round; Aspelin-Hanley Save 4 M.P.

© Getty ImagesFeliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco advanced to the second round on Sunday.

Top seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic, who have already reached four tour-level finals this year, crushed lucky losers Denis Istomin and Frank Moser 6-0, 6-2 in just 45 minutes on Sunday for a place in the Sony Ericsson Open second round. Nestor and Zimonjic dropped just eight points in the first set, and won 76 per cent of service points and hit nine aces overall.

The Canadian-Serbian duo improved to a 17-4 match record on the season, highlighted by clinching two ATP World Tour titles at the Medibank International Sydney (d. Hutchins-Kerr) and the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam (d. Aspelin-Hanley). They also reached the Australian Open and BNP Paribas Open finals.

Third seeds Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes, the Brisbane International and Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships finalists, were forced to work for a 6-4, 7-6(4) victory over Ross Hutchins and Jordan Kerr in 89 minutes. Two weeks ago, the Czech-Indian duo advanced to an ATP Challenger Tour final at Sunrise, Florida (l. to Damm-Polasek).

Fourth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi overcame a potentially tricky test, hitting seven aces past 2005 Wimbledon champions Stephen Huss and Wesley Moodie for a 6-4, 7-5 victory in 76 minutes. Mirnyi has won four doubles titles at Crandon Park, venue of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournament, in 2003 (w/Federer) and 2005-06 (w/Bjorkman) and last year with Andy Ram.

Sixth seeds Simon Aspelin and Paul Hanley, who triumphed in Dubai last month, saved four match points in the Match tie-break to beat Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-7(4), 14-12 in one hour and 45 minutes. This season's PBZ Zagreb Indoors titlist Melzer and Petzschner failed to convert match points when leading 9-7, 10-9 and 12-11 in the deciding tie-break.

Elsewhere, seventh seeds Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak improved to an 8-6 record on the season, after saving seven of nine break point opportunities to knock out Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau 7-6(1), 6-4 in just over 90 minutes. Cermak and Mertinak reached the Qatar ExxonMobil Open final (l. to Garcia-Lopez-Montanes) in the first week of the year.

Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco managed to beat Michael Llodra and Ram 6-2, 7-5 for a place in the second round.