On a mixed day for the Indians, Mahesh Bhupathi [ Images ] advanced to the men's doubles second round but Sania Mirza [ Images ] crashed out of the women's doubles event at the US $ 4.5 million BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells.

Sania and her partner Chia-Jung Chuang [ Images ] of Taipei went down 1-6, 4-6 to the Argentine-Israeli team of Gisela Dulko [ Images ] and Shahar Peer in the opening round.

However, Sania is still in contention in the singles event and the Indian ace takes on 12th seed Italian Flavia Panetta after a hard-fought first round victory on Thursday.

In the men's doubles, the third seeded pair of Bhupathi and Bahamas' Mark Knowles [ Images ] edged past Russians Dmitry Tursunov [ Images ] and Igor Kunitsyn 7-5, 6-3 in the opening round.

In a contest that lasted over an hour, Bhupathi and Knowles had to toil in the opening set but they ultimately prevailed over their error-prone unseeded rivals.

In contrast, the second set was dominated by the Indo-Bahamian pair which broke Tursunov and Kunitsyn thrice before wrapping up the proceedings in their favour.

Fourth seeds Leander Paes [ Images ] and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy [ Images ] will open their campaign against unseeded Austrians Jurgen Melzer [ Images ] and Julian Knowle.