The Indian doubles specialists Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi defeated Russia's Igor Kunitsyn and Teimuraz Gabashvili in straight sets and kept ray of hope alive for the country to do something at the Davis Cup World Group.

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, the winners of 14 Grand Slam titles during their career, would lock horns with Russia today.

Earlier, they closed the match by outclassing the Russian duo 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in one hour 36 minutes.

Bhupathi gave full points to their performance for the first round tennis of the cup and said that both of them enjoyed the match while playing.

Indian captain S. P. Misra also hailed the exquisite game of Leander and Mahesh and hoped that they would continue to achieve success in the coming events as well.

The reverse singles would complete on Sunday and quarter final would be played either with Argentina or Sweden.