Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi surged ahead with their respective partners in the first round of the mixed doubles at the US Open at Flushing Meadows, New York on Thursday.

Paes and the legendary Martina Navratilova, seeded seventh, overcame the French pair of Tatiana Golovin and Fabrice Santoro 6-3, 6-2 to advance into the second round.

The Indo-American pair will face Virginia Ruano Pascual and Stephen Huss in the next round.

Paes' former doubles partner Bhupathi though had to face a stiffer challenge to ward off the first hurdle.

Bhupathi, partnering Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova, dropped the first set, but scraped through the next two, to register a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9) victory over Tiantian Sun of China and Simon Aspelin of Sweden.

Their next match is scheduled against fourth seeds Lisa Raymond and Jonas Bjorkman on Saturday.