India’s doubles players made a promising start at the US Open with Davis Cupper N Sriram Balaji and Yuki Bhambri progressing to the men’s doubles second round with their respective partners in New York. Balaji, who has been doing well of late, and his Argentine partner Guido Andreozzi overcame a one-set deficit to beat New Zealand’s Marcus Daniell and Mexico’s Miguel Reyes-Varela 5-7 6-1 7-6 (12-6) in a close contest that lasted two hours and 36 minutes. Balaji had impressed at the French Open too where he and Reyes-Varela had stretched Bopanna and Matthew Ebden in a gruelling contest on clay.

A good run at the US Open, before the Davis Cup tie against Sweden, will be ideal preparation for Balaji, who will enter the rubber as the country’s main doubles player.

“It was a close match. Especially my partner and Micky were ex partners and it was mentally not easy for him. We lost a close first set where we had couple of break chances and we couldn’t convert.

“Final set we were serving for the match and the momentum shifted. I’m happy that we stayed strong and pulled it off,” Balaji told PTI.

Bhambri, who has opted out of the tie, and his French partner Albano Olivetti also advanced with a 6-3 6-4 win over local wildcards Ryan Seggerman and Patrik Trhac.

“It was a good clinical performance. Playing Americans in their home slam can get tricky but once we had the lead we put our foot down and played consistently,” said Bhambri.

They will next take on the American-Dutch combination of Austin Krajicek and Jean-Julien Rojer in the second round.

Second seeds Bopanna and Ebden will open their campaign on Thursday.