Mahesh Bhupathi and Fernando Gonzalez of Chile easily won their opening round men's doubles match in Monte Carlo Tennis Masters Series at Monaco.

Bhupathi pairing Gonzalez, instead of his regular partner Todd Woodbridge, defeated Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia and Marat Safin of Russia 6-3, 6-3 to enter the second round.

The duo will next play eighth seeds Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Todd Perry of Australia who got bye into the second round.

The other Indian in the fray, Leander Paes playing with Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia got a first round bye. The fifth seeds will take on Argentine pair of Gaston Etlis and Martin Rodriguez in the second round.

Etlis-Rodriguez beat Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils of France 7-5, 7-5 in their opening encounter.